Mahoranma
by Chibi-Reaper
Summary: Few unused plot points, a little used but interesting cross, and hey presto! Lets see how this goes, skipped the Et Cetera bin entirely. Multicross, BTW.
1. Chapter 1

"Disgusting." Genma spat, staring balefully down at the house that the pair had been watching the whole day, taking particular disgust when the youngest daughter stacked a few boards, punched through them, and happily cheered about the feat before heading off to take a bath.

_That_ was the extent of the training of Tendo's daughter?

"Papa... how long do we have to stay up this tree?" Ranma asked quietly.

'As long as it takes for them to notice us!' was what Genma wanted to bark, but he was forced to admit that, as the hours wore on, that was growing less and less likely. The sun had begun to set, and the household below was drawing into their comfortable home for the night, not a one having the slightest clue that the martial artists had been watching since the break of dawn. It really was disgusting.

"Tell me, Ranma... what do you see?" He asked instead. "When you look at them, what do you see?"

"I see... a family." The eight-year old answered quietly, not knowing where his father was going with this.

"That's right." The large man rumbled. "Tendo... a quiet, normal family, living quiet, normal lives. But... it wasn't supposed to be that way. Tendo-kun..."

He trailed off sadly.

"Why have I been training you?" He asked instead, changing topic abruptly.

"To be the best." Was the immediate reply, this having been drilled methodically into the youth's head for years, and Genma nodded.

"Yes... but _why_ did you have to be the best? I suppose you haven't yet reached an age to wonder about such things." He sighed, wondering how to put things. "Tendo-kun... a long time ago, he and I made a very important promise. To fulfill that promise, we would train our children to be the best of the best, and then.... that isn't important anymore, I suppose." He finished wistfully.

"The girl down there. Did you see what cheerful delight she had, breaking through the boards?" He asked, recieving a prompt nod. "But tell me... how long did it take _you_ to reach that level? Mere weeks into the training, you could break as many boards, as easily, as Tendo-ku... as Tendo's daughter did. And from there, we did not pause to celebrate such a minor achievement, but pushed forward immediately."

"Tell me, Ranma.... in what way could what we've seen even _begin_ to be considered 'the best'?"

Ranma's mouth had opened in a soft 'oh' of realization.

"Tendo... he has forgotten, even outright ignored our solemn vow." Genma stated flatly. "I come to commiserate with an old friend about the death of his wife, and see...? No. It has been only weeks since, the mourning is no excuse. There is no doubt that, from the very beginning, Tendo never truly intended to hold up to his half of the bargain."

"But... but! If I'm going to be the best... can't I do it all on my own?" Ranma asked.

"What... fulfill our vow? No. No, that won't be possible. But... yes." Genma mumbled. "Yes... there is no reason to shirk in your training, simply because Tendo spits upon our vow. You _will_ be the best, my son. When you are, we will return, and we will _shame_ Tendo for his broken promises and _useless_ daughters. Come boy... there is no reason to remain here. Tonight, your training will be redoubled, and I will hold nothing back. I will pass _everything_ I know down to you, even that which I had sealed away."

"There will be no more foolishness. There will be no mercy. There will be no true rest. From this point on, there will be no turning back. You _will_ be the best. There is no longer any other option."

"Yes, papa."

"Now come, boy. We leave for China."

xxx

"Disaster." Genma snarled to himself.

It was only a bare six months of intense, backbreaking training later that everything came crashing down in disaster.

"Jusenkyo." Genma grumbled, staring at his hand which now, with the merest brush of cool water, so prevalent in the world, became bestial forearm and paw, furry and clawed.

Even this.. even this, he could have endured. Even his sons own curse, he could have endured, but...

"Permament." He stated flatly, all emotion in his voice gone as his gaze switched between the guide and his _daughter_.

"So sorry, customers. Did try to warn you..." The guide trailed off at the dark glower of the father, and quicky moved on from excuses. "Yes... Musk tribe once live near here, long, long ago. Very powerful, use beast styles. One day, they discover Jusenkyo. Use curse magic to make brides of animals, make stronger children. Even douse dragon for lineage of ruler, they say. Musk sorceror make artifact, artifact make permament curse. No good for bride to become animal again while heavy with baby, yes? King of Musk, he say 'only use artifact with this spring anyway, why not leave in spring, make whole spring permament?', and-"

"I understand." Genma barked, cutting off the tale. "Magic. Curses and magic destroying everything."

He turned his gaze to Ranma.

"You... are no longer my son." He decided stonily.

"B-but papa!"

"_No!_" He roared back, temper getting the better of him for a moment before it cooled. "No. That is fact. Unless you can regain your true form, you are my daughter now. And so... you are useless. I have no place for a daughter. I trained my _son_ to be the best."

Cowed, young Ranma stared sullenly at the floor, awaiting her fathers verdict, and his stony gaze softened.

"But... there is no need to be so harsh. Worthless or not. My son is lost to me, presumed dead. My wife and I shall mourn him when I return, and should he somehow return to us we will rejoice in the return of our son. You... are an orphan child my son met in an alley. Through compassion, I welcomed you to the family, kept and fed you, even trained you alongside my son, as an unofficial daughter, giving you the family name. When my son disappeared, you chose to take up his name on your own."

Ranma nodded slowly.

"Yes. There is no purpose to training you further myself, however. The Sealed techniques will also remain sealed unless in a life or death situation. Only my son can use such on a whim. You will, however, be allowed to continue practicing and training in the family style on your own, though I very much doubt you will proceed much further. And though you are unwanted, I will take care of you. I have a friend in the hierarchy of a school. You will be educated, as befits a young woman. My son had no need of such, but you are not him. You _will_ do well. I will be paying for your tuition out of my own pocket, and though it is an elevator school, I will not tolerate you throwing that money away. You bear the Saotome name on my sufferance alone. Do not give me cause to regret it."

The decision rankled at the sullen youth, but she nodded anyway, locking the anger away, but not releasing it. As they returned to china, her father refusing to train her any more in any fashion, the fires of that rage grew further and further, and one day... the day that he took her to be enrolled in an all-girl campus then calmly left, stating that he never intended to see _her_ face again, that burning rage went cold, but no less furious in its intensity.

Magic. Everything had been fine until magic became involved. Her father had admitted freely that Ranma's rate of growth had been phenomenal, even ridiculous, almost learning things faster than he could arrange to teach. Ranma had been well on the way to being the best. And then, Magic had gotten involved and brought everything shattering down to the ground.

Ranma Saotome... _hated _magic.

xxx

Mahoranma

xxx

Ranma hadn't gone out of the way to make friends. In fact, she had done quite the opposite. There was no _time_ for friendship, with both education and private martial study already on her plate. She'd been well behind when she'd started, and had had to throw herself into books to catch up, then sacrifice sleep to continue training, becoming something of an insomniac by habit. Her grades had rapidly climbed from below average to near the top of their class, however, rivalling even the Chao girl, who quite simply aced everything without effort.

Most of the girls were the sort of people she hated anyway... spending all day giggling and enjoying themselves, gossiping about pointless fashions and idols, obsessing over crushes... being quite literally a boy in a girl's body, the idea of making friends with such 'tee-hee tea party' people was abhorrent. The rest were, it seemed, less social than even she was, and some were downright weird.

There was the ghost, of course. Then, Ranma very much doubted that the ghost had even realized that Ranma could see her, as it had been months and months before she'd even gotten the sense of something odd about that empty seat. There was the chinese-style martial artist, and the girl she'd come to a pretty firm conclusion had, at the very least, some serious ninjutsu training, the girl who always smelled at least faintly of gun-oil, the sort-of-mime girl... and, naturally, the more relatively recent addition of the robot-girl, who spent almost all of her time with that one blonde, or the 'mad scientist' of the class.

Still... there was no point to bothering with such things, even if they were slightly more interesting than the giggling sheep around them, gossiping about a new teacher as she waited patiently in silence, her classmates having become more than aware of how pointless it was to try to drag her into conversation when she was brooding. And she was _always_ brooding, an air of quiet and intensely focused rage hanging about her like a cloud.

The door slid open and the class quieted, watching expectantly for their pointless little prank to go off. And it did... although a ten-year-old in a suit probably hadn't been the intended target.

.... Huh. That one hadn't seemed at all surprised at... wait. Ranma frowned, only half listening to the explanation that the kid was the new sensei, just one more spot of oddity as she considered something else. The first part of the trap, that blackboard eraser... for just a moment it had _floated _in the air above the child-teacher's head.

Weird. But there was no denying the evidence of her eyes. He didn't move like a trained fighter though... and such a trick pulled off at the drop of a hat would require levels of training to match her with ki. In that case... her eyes narrowed in disgust.

Magic. Of course. It was _always_ magic. She ignored the brief scuffles up towards the head of the class as she considered that, reigning in the explosive rage that had redoubled at the mere realization and _demanded_ that she attack, and right now, before the magic user had a chance to try anything.

Still... this could be useful, she decided, taking a petty and cruel amusement in the way that Kagurazaka had started launching bits of eraser at the child mage's head. If the boy could use magic, then she could force him to do _something_ about the curse, then....

And then... something. She'd figure stuff out from there afterwards.

After class, though, the crowd of rising and bustling students had been enough for the teacher to disappear in a moment of confusion. No matter, if he was teaching the class, then he would have to return. There would be no escape.

Another of the class had very similar thoughts on the matter.

xxx

The next class hadn't been much better though, as the kid had blown Kagurazaka's clothes off with a _sneeze_, somehow, then disappeared at the end of class, and she'd headed off to the library after another failed attempt to locate him. Nobody except the Miyazaki girl ever came here at this time of day, so it was an excellent place to study, both in the educational sense and in that of her martial techniques. There was a surprisingly large quantity of...

She was interrupted from her thoughts by the click of the door locking echoing through the empty room, and muffled voices. Interesting. She moved to investigate....

... and froze as a sudden wave of exasperated affection for the child-mage washed over her at the sight of him and Miyazaki, and how he'd started suddenly freaking out and trying to escape the usually meek girl. Still, it wouldn't do for the shy girl to make a move on _her_ little....

... almost as quickly as the unexpected emotion had come, it was scoured away by the roaring fires of incandescent rage. What had that _been_? A spell of.... such terrifying magic, warping the mind and emotions in such a manner. Her world had narrowed to a red tunnel, focused on the child mage as she interjected herself into Miyazaki's attempted seduction, ignoring the suprise as she tossed the girl gently away.

"Hello sensei." She said, smiling sweetly and helping him up as the spell took momentary hold once more before she smashed through it with the power of focused rage. " I'm going to _kill you_!" She howled, fipping Kagurazaki over her head on autopilot as she smashed through the door and tried some sort of clumsy attack, her fist shooting forward, her sole aim, the entire purpose of her existence at that moment to crush the mageling's skull to a pulpy mess.

At the last, last possible moment she diverted the strike, instead leaving a webwork of cracks in the pillar she'd held him up against. She couldn't kill him. Not yet. She needed him to fix the curse first... _then_ the cute little mage-brat was irrelevant, and she could... could...

She clutched at her head and dropped the pale brat to fall to his knees as alternating waves of rage and artificial affection took hold of her. After a couple long moments it settled into the quiet, icy hatred she was more used to and she scowled down at the little mage.

"I don't know... _what_ you did to me." She said frostily, setting a chill down the spines of everyone else in the room. "But I _will_ have words with you about it later, and make no mistake... dare try it again, and _your life is forfeit_." She spat. "In any case... I'll see you again later, sensei. Perhaps by then, the urge to _carve out your still beating heart and feed it to carrion beasts_ will have faded. Good day."

"S-scary..." Negi mumbled softly to himself, trembling as she left the room.

xxx

"That was Saotome Ranma." Asuna said later.

"I-Is she always so..."

"Apocalyptic? Actually... no." Asuna mused. "It's weird... she's usually very quiet and restrained. Standoffish, yeah, and kinda gloomy, but she's usually polite even if she makes it really clear that she's not at all interested in being friendly or nice. I think this... is probably the first time I've ever seen her explode like that at all, much less so violently. Man, Ice Queen Ranma has a serious temper under that frosty shell, I guess."

"She... was seriously going for the kill, without the slightest hesitation."

"What? Nah." Asuna brushed Negi's concerns off. "I'm sure you misunderstood. Sure, she might have beat you up a little, but I'm sure..."

"You'd be wrong." Ranma interrupted, revealing herself and making Asuna jump at the sudden voice.

"Wha, when did you, how-?"

"Unimportant. This doesn't concern you, Kagurazaki. You may leave."

"Like hell! This is _my_ room!"

"Then stay. But make no mistake... at that moment, I fully intended to eliminate Negi-sensei, and possibly yourself and Miyazaki afterwards if circumstances forced me to."

"Why would you-?" Negi began, horrified at the blatant admission, only to be cut off.

"Why ask why? I have my reasons. But if you must know, it can be summed up as because..." She trailed off, and when she spoke again it was in a venomous snarl. "I... _hate... magic!_"

Both of the others in the room flinched, neither even making an attempt to deny the accusation in the face of her seething rage, as she visibly calmed herself.

"As I said... I have my reasons. You, yourself, provided an example this afternoon."

"But that was harmless-" Asuna started, before Ranma cut her off.

"_Harmless_? Naive little.... _This time_, it was harmless, however it happened. Sensei had enough brains to know that if he _did_ take advantage of whatever-it-was, that there would be... Severe Consequences." She finished, with a chill tone. "But think a little harder. What if this little incident _hadn't_ been focused on him, but rather someone with no qualms about taking shameless advantage of the situation?"

Asuna and the boy-mage's sudden pale, cold sweat suggested that they had caught on.

"_That_... is one of the reasons I hate magic." She stated calmly, like frozen steel. "But it's unimportant. Sensei! Tell me what you know of breaking curses, and I'll forgive you this once. I won't even cripple you, or leave you with hideous, deforming scars for the affront." She finished almost cheerfully.

Negi remained wordless, trembling, and she scowled.

"I should have known. Worthless! I really should have finished you..." She snarled, slamming a fist into the wall as her shoulders sagged before she straightened herself, banishing the gloom "No matter. I'll continue on as before, then. See you tomorrow, sensei."

"Wha.... What's _wrong with you_!?" Asuna finally got out. "The threats, the violence... look at him! The kid's terrified!"

"So?" Ranma replied flatly. "He _should_ fear me. If I'm in the mood and he offers me the slightest excuse... then he disappears forever. If he can't handle such harsh realities, then he should never have begun playing about with _magic_ in the first place. The leniencies of childhood are no longer afforded to such."

Without another word, Ranma left through the window, leaving Asuna to gape after the... _cold-hearted bitch_ she shared classes with before turning back to Negi. She didn't even really _like_ the brat, but...

"Um... are you all...?"

"I'm fine." He mumbled, but it was obvious that Ranma had shaken him severely as he wiped away tears. "She... she's right, though. All through magic classes, we were warned about how easy it is to make enemies, and the sort of problems that could bring, and... still. I suppose I just... wasn't expecting to have enemies in Japan even before I arrived, just by being..."

He shook his head.

"I'd try to erase her memories, but it's clear now that she had some sort of traumatic incident in her past involving magic, one that has shaped her personality even to this day. Even if it worked, just erasing her memory of my being a mage would have little effect, if she catches on to such things so quickly, and if I tried a deeper removal, removing all her memories of magic altogether, it would probably leave her with just as much problems as that traumatic incident did in the first place... not to mention, it probably wouldn't take, as if I'm correct then her hatred of magic is daily reinforced with everything she does. There's simply no removing something that runs so deep without completely erasing the entire personality and every memory she's had up to the point she first encountered magic." He said, calming himself with an impromptu lecture.

"Not to mention, you aren't that hot with that memory erasing stuff to begin with." Asuna pointed out.

"Ahehehe... yes, that's so." He admitted. "Still... at this point, there's nothing to be done except continue business as usual with classwork and try to go out of my way not to draw miss Saotome's ire." He shuddered at the idea, imagining a furiously cackling redhead, arms dripping with gore from the elbows down.

"Honestly though... I don't blame her." He admitted, surprising Asuna. "There are more than a few magic users who aren't... wise, nor kind with the use of their power. Most are dealt with swiftly by the authorities of magic, but some slip through the cracks for a while.... if she had run into one of them, then her response would be... for that matter, even if she did it through focused rage, throwing off a love spell, even one so weak, the first time she experienced such a thing is actually very impressive. I can't help but wonder..."

He shook his head as Asuna considered that, found the taste of the idea niggling around the edges of her mind very much unpalatable, and brought up another point.

"She wanted to know what you knew about 'breaking curses'..."

"Ah! That's true... unfortunately, I only really know a few spells, and they're combat magic, but if she's interested in breaking curses then logically... it means that there's a curse to break." He finished softly.

Keys rattled at the door, revealing that Konoka, who still knew nothing about magic, was home and their discussion came to an abrupt end. Unpleasant thoughts flickered through both of their minds for some time thereafter, though, and Asuna didn't even object too much when the much younger boy had somehow found his way into her bed by morning.

xxx

For a long time after that, Ranma simply went about her business and ignored Negi whenever possible, although she did consider bombing a particular test on purpose in an attempt to get him fired. In the end, though, she'd not been interested enough in the idea of being rid of the mage with clean hands to sacrifice her grade for it, and things continued much as per normal, though she couldn't begin to imagine why the brat had started carting a fluffy rat around one day.

Possibly a familiar or something. The vermin suited him, and if she caught it _stealing her undergarments_ again, there would be spilled blood. Its or the brat-mage's, it made no difference to her.

There had been the talk in the health check about a vampire, too. Ranma's initial thought had been to dismiss it, but she held the impulse in check, and Sasaki's 'anemia' sent off serious warning vibes.

Vampire... huh. Interesting. For a moment, she contemplated hunting the thing down to unlease some aggression, but decided against it. It wasn't her problem... let the child-mage play with the monster and, if she was lucky, the would take each other out.

They hadn't, of course. Then had been all the talk of a 'partner' for Negi, just before that rat showed up... probably a mage thing. Dragging some random person into magic shenanigans... the idea made her want to punch the brat until she got bored of it, and it took a _long_ time for her to get bored of violence.

And now, during what had been intended to be a casual walk, she'd found Kagurazaki and the child-mage stalking the robot-girl, for whatever reason. Really... she'd tolerated their antics for long enough, if they tried something fishy... she'd simply have to put the mage-brat back in line.

The robot girl actually seemed like a pretty nice, pleasant person too, what with all the playing with children, helping old ladies up the stairs, rescuing of kittens and happy feeding of stray animals. It actually unsettled her to see someone so unabashedly delighted about performing good deeds... and in spite of that, if she was judging the confrontation below correctly, they _still_ intended to pick a fight with her. No help for it then.

She jumped down as the battle began, Kagurazaki engaging at close range and the child mage charging a spell. She wouldn't allow it to come to fruiton, especially as it became instantly obvious that the robot-girl was tied up in the melee defense and would be completely blindsided. Landing lightly, she caught the back of Asuna's collar and spun, twisting into a throw, slamming the girl into the child mage at the end of the arc.

"My my my. Out minding my own business, and what do I see but a fight brewing." She mocked calmly. "And since I'm not particularly interested in sitting by and watching, I just have to do something, right? Mechanism Chachamaru, isn't it?" She asked. "You can take off if you want. I'll be more than happy to teach them a lesson in your place."

"Bu... w-wait!" Negi stammered. "Y-you don't understand what-"

"There's nothing _to_ understand, from my point of view." She shot back. "I've been watching you three for the past hour... and I'm disgusted at your actions, brat! And dragging the Kagurazaki girl into such things... well. Maybe I didn't make myself clear when we spoke before, or you thought I was joking?"

"Bu-bu-but.... this is bad." Negi realized to himself as Asuna wobbled to her feet.

"Ugh... feels like a bus hit me." She mumbled. "Ten seconds are up? Gotta try again. That feeling.... it was like I was lighter than a feather, and strong as... Reactivate it! We don't have the advantage anymore, and she's strong, yeah, but I think I can take her!"

"O-okay. Activate the contract for... fifteen seconds, for Kagurazaki Asuna!"

Strength renewed, she surged into battle, hoping to blow through Ranma with a quick knockout and close with Chachamaru again, who was merely standing back and watching the affair silently.

She was met with a palm-strike out of seemingly nowhere to the stomach, blasting her right back to crash into Negi again and killing that particular hope.

"Weak... so weak, Kagurazaki. Do you think that just because you got a little magic power-up, that you could actually match me? Pathetic. Put in ten to fifteen more years of dedicated training and try again, and _maybe_ you'll be able to dodge my first counterblow." She declared smugly. "Are you so desperate for a 'partner' that you'll just accept anyone with a bit of muscle, kid? In any case... I happen to be in a good mood today, so if you run away right now, I won't even hunt you down like scared little rabbits and finish you off!" She offered cheerfully. "Isn't that nice of me? Of course, if you want to push things..."

The pair took the hint and scampered off like startled deer, even as they both insisted that she 'didn't understand' and was 'making a mistake'.

"Well... that business is over with, then."

"Why?"

Ranma blinked, surprised at the sudden and vague question.

"Why what now?"

"Why involve yourself in such a matter, when it was no concern of yours?" Chachamaru clarified, leaving Ranma blinking again.

"Hm. Well, like I said, I'm not one to sit down and watch an actual fight happen from the sidelines. And once I get involved, I have to either pick a side or make my own, don't I?"

"Then-"

"Why yours? Ah... can't just be grateful for the assist, huh? Well... could be that I just wanted to even things out, two on two. Could be that I wasn't happy about people ambushing such a nice person. Could be a lot of things, actually. But yeah.... I guess it all boils down to one point."

She smiled.

"It's simply because... I like you, a lot more then I like those two."

She turned and wandered off, Chachamaru's curious stare at her back, not realizing that an extremely faint psuedo-blush had slowly appeared on the gynoid's face as she left, satisfied with having done her own good deed for the duration.

xxx

"Th-this is bad." Negi mumbled again, in the safety of the dorm.

"A-ni-ki...." Chamo whined. "If you want me to make plans for you, then you have to give me all the info, you know? So who's the new troublemaker?"

"She's Saotome Ranma. And usually, she's not a problem." Asuna stated flatly.

"Usually..?"

"She's an exemplary student." Negi followed up. "Perfect A-average, near the top of the class. She never causes any discipline issues while in class, but... I'm afraid we got off on the wrong foot with an accidentally ill-used 'popularity' potion, and..."

"Oooh.... I get it. Pretty sneaky, Aniki. So she's a jilted-"

"N-no, not at all. Um... quite the.... I... guess I'll just have to start at the beginning. For the most part, the potion went off without a hitch... escaping wasn't fun... and through the matter I ended up locked in the library where Saotome-san was studying..."

"This sounds juicy..."

"Nothing like that happened!" Negi insisted. "What happened was... for a moment or two, the potion seemed to have its effect as was intended, but it seems that Saotome-san had had some prior experience with magic, long ago, and overpowered the spell. Then she..."

"Fled teary-eyed and sobbing about her broken heart?" Chamo guessed, prompting a scoff from Asuna.

"She smashed up a pillar that would have been my head had she not changed her mind at the last moment." Negi corrected. "She'd controlled herself, but there was some talk about hearts, yes. And, er, carrion animals. Then later that night, she appeared unannounced in this room and made an inquiry of her own, and when I was unable to answer to her satisfaction she seemed disgusted and sincerely claimed that she wished she hadn't changed her mind in the library, pronounced that she hated magic, and through it mages, unconditionally, and suggested I was fortunate she didn't feel like going through the effort of maiming or hideously scarring me as a lesson and reminder for the future."

Chamo slowly toppled over.

"Y-you gotta be kidding me, Aniki! You're kidding me, right? No, just a minute, let me see the roster again."

Negi produced the folded over paper and let the ermine eye it. After a long minute, he winced heavily.

"Well?" Asuna wondered.

"You know that Ermine spirits such as myself can judge 'relationships', right? Pretty sure I explained that before... Anyway.... gimme another piece of paper and a stub of pencil, easier to show than tell."

They produced it and Chamo quickly sketched up a diagram.

"It's a bit oversimplified, but it'll get the point across. Anyway, it's just a vertical range. Zero is apathy, someone with absolutely no relationship with you at all. Negative numbers are the level of negative relationships, i.e. 'enemies'. Positive ones are likewise positive ones, or 'friends'. Now, the vast majority of the class are here." He stated, quickly scribbing down initials and a small bracket. "Not much of a relationship, but it's definitely a positive one for most of them. Ane-chan and this one have a stronger relationship than that." He said, scribbing in Asuna and Nodoka's names somewhat above the bracket. "And then down here, it's the vampire and the robot with negative relationships, with Eva's number a good bit lower on the scale than Chachamaru."

"I... I see." Negi said, focusing on the large number of names on the positive end of the scale.

"Wait a minute, though." Asuna pointed out. "Ice-Queen Ranma... you didn't put her name on this scale at all. Where does she fit in?"

"Yeah... I was kinda getting to that. If I had to put her on the scale... it wouldn't fit." He stated flatly. "All of these names clustered down here, even Eva, who looks like she's the furthest from 'zero' with this diagram, they'd all mash together in a tiny little spot! Her feelings for you aren't just a little dislike, or even simple enmity, it's full blown irrational hatred! To put it simply, she absolutely loathes you, with every fiber of her being! Aniki! You shouldn't mess around with this girl, she'll seriously kill you!" The ermine wailed.

Asuna frowned, still not sure that the rat wasn't overstating things somewhat as Negi shook uncontrollably for a moment.

"No... as, as a teacher, I have a duty to my students, no matter if they hate me." He decided. "And... Evangeline..."

"I still think you two are going overboard about Eva." Asuna said. "She's been in our class for the past few years, and I think-"

"_You_ think!" The ermine interrupted. "But I pulled up some info on her, and fifteen years ago she wasn't just 'Evangeline, schoolgirl', she was The Dark Evangel, with a bounty on her head in the magical world of no less than _six million_! True, she's apparently never killed children before, but letting your guard down around her is _not_ a good idea!"

"Wha, wha, wha, wha, what is someone like _this_ doing in our class!" Asuna stutter-yelled, composure shot.

With that final bit of information, Negi's nerves broke and he grabbed his staff, jumping out the window and flying away full speed in a panic.

xxx

"Ki to the feet..." Ranma mumbled, before attempting the technique once more, and being rewarded with another close failure.

The first time she'd found a martial arts technique in the library, she'd been understandably dubious. Previous experience had led her to believe the only decent ones to be passed down through scrolls, or direct training with a sensei, and everything in relatively normal looking books to be trash for mass consumption by bored children that wouldn't do much with them anyway.

These, however... she'd quickly discovered that there was a pattern to the sorting of the books. The 'trash' to be read for amusement purposes were on one set of shelves, while the serious texts, actually a much larger portion, were in another area entirely. _They_ had been a fantastic find, though she could only put proper polish on some techniques through training with an actual 'sparring opponent'.

Theoretically, she could probably ask one of her classmates in a martial arts class for a friendly match, but she much preferred the method of... taking a walk through a bad part of town. There was no shortage of thugs and street toughs 'willing' to oblige her needs, although she had to slow herself and pull a great deal of the force from behind her strikes or she would accidentally kill them. Better yet, there were never any expectations beyond the fight, such as joining a social club, and no 'hurt feelings' or any such nonsense if she got a little over-exuberant and started breaking bones.

Though, some got wise after the first few times they got thrashed by the 'demonic redhead' that took to walking their streets, but there was no shortage of fools to take their place. All she needed was warm bodies to work out the kinks of the new techniques as she incorporated them into her style.

This one though... 'Instant Movement'. It was a speed technique that very nearly lived up to its name. Even so, despite it not actually being quite 'instant', the difference was very small at short range, making it an incredible technique in its own right... if only she could get it mastered. The start of the technique was no problem, as she'd worked out the trick of just how to move the ki, and her feet in a matter of hours, but pulling out at the end point... the timing there was very tricky. She'd spent the free time of the past few days working on that, and slamming into trees and walls in failed attempts, with the break for a walk which had turned into the brief skirmish with those two, nicely breaking up the monotony.

She nearly had it though. Her pull out had gotten much smoother, and she only stumbled a little at the end of the technique, rather than flying head over heels as she had initially. Just a few more short hours, and she'd have this technique mastered.

And then she could move on to studying the next stage of the technique... 'Void Instant Movement'. Much the same, though it would inarguably be more difficult, but as Saotome-ryu had been based around aerial combat from the very beginning its use could not be denied.

She'd show them. Show the Tendo's. Show her parents. Show them _all_. Even if she never found a way to return to the form of her birth, even if magic continued to poke its way into her life with filth-stained claws, no matter what, she _would_ be the best.

The moon passed lazily overhead, charting its course through the heavens as it had always done, and would always continue to do.

xxx

A.N.

Ah. So. Uh. Guess who just read a couple hundred chapters of Mahou Sensei Negima all in one sitting? Finally got around to looking it up one friday night out of boredom, was prepared to hate it on the basis of being described as 'something like a Harry Potter, Love Hina fusion', and bam! Midnight _saturday_ was when I'm pretty sure I finally passed out.

'just... just one more chapter... just one more... one more....'

So Yeah. Anyway, took a few failed plot elements from here and there, threw 'em in a pot, added a Ranma/Negima cross.... _this_.

I like it. Your mileage may vary, but one of the grating things about the series for me was that Negi gets into the swing of things and whoosh! Everyone in class likes him. Sure, there's the whole Eva/initial Pactio arc thing, but that goes away shortly after, with the whole apprenticeship thing. Throwing in Ranma, with a serious, _serious_ mad-on for magic should tangle the works a bit though.

And yeah, uh, OOC some. Still the crazy-obsessive martial-arts stuff, but uh... less 'happy dummy' and more 'I will _destroy_ you utterly, leaving not a trace remaining to offend my eyes, mage'. Big-time anger issues, but serious control over them. Liiike.... if Akane learned the Soul of Ice, in canon?

Actually, I don't think that's quite an apt description, and for some reason it sends chills down my spine. Trying a different comparison... less 'Robin, the Boy Wonder' and more 'PsychoBatMan'. That's a better analogy, I think. Or less 'Naruto' more 'Sasuke', maybe. Something along those lines.

Anyway, next chapter should be the first serious mage vs mage combat that Ranma stumbles across. That'll be fun.

Sneak preview:

"I'll be more than happy to take you _both_ on, mages!"

"Tch. If a practicing mage happens to die in battle, then it's no concern of mine.. but I'm _not_ simply going to stand aside and watch some little girl fall in a lake and drown, even if she _does_ part-time as an evil monster."


	2. Chapter 2

Negi had calmed and regained his confidence after his stay in the mountains with Kaede, having enjoyed the time spent with the kunoichi.

Not that she'd ever come out and said it, but she hadn't denied it either, simply asserting that she couldn't tell him what she was training for. If she'd wanted to _hide_ it, then the whole sixteen-clone thing with the scavenging would have been something of a foolish move.

In any case, though, it was time to face his problems. Or one of them, at least. He still didn't have the slightest idea of what to do about Ranma, but there was a slightly more pressing concern anyway. It was likely that Evangeline would seek revenge for the attempted ambush of Chachamaru, and so a fight would be inavoidable, but if he could force it to take place at a time and place of his choosing... at the least, he was fairly sure that if he could face Evangeline in a duel, and win, then she would agree to stop causing problems.

An outside observor would probably note that it wasn't exactly the most well thought out plan in the world, but for all his smarts, and even the recent events, he was still a ten year old with a somewhat idealistic worldview.

He'd drawn up the challenge letter that morning, and had intended to deliver it promptly, but...

"Ill!?"

xxx

Mahoranma

xxx

There was no way. Such a powerful vampire, taking a day off for the flu? No. He'd have to see it himself to believe it.

Academy district Sakura-Goak, 4th district 29 was the adress on her information. It was... not at all what he'd expected, looking for all the world like an artistic log cabin, rather than the spooky 'haunted mansion' or mausoleum he'd prepared himself for. Even so, he steeled himself and rang the doorbell.

There was no response. Wondering if he was walking into a trap, he carefully opened the door and announced himself.

The inside of the building was even less similar to his expectations. Fancy fixtures, drapes, and curtains, candles set out, all manner of dolls and plush toys scattered about the room. Just what kind of vampire _was_ Eva?

"Who's there?"

Chachamaru walked around a corner, carrying a tray of tea and a small paper sack.

"Ah... Negi-Sensei." She stated flatly. "Do you have some business with master?"

"About that.... first, I should really apologize for the other day. I wasn't exactly... I'm sorry. But... where _is_ Evangeline-san?"

"Master is ill. I'm sure one of the other students has already notified-"

"Again with that excuse. You... can't seriously be telling me that an immortal like her-?"

"Aren't you a brave one." A weak voice came from the top of the stairs. When Negi turned, Eva was there, wobbling slightly, heavily flushed, and sweaty as she settled herself into the best attempt of an intimidating pose she could manage. "Walking without a thought into the wolves' den. My magic is restrained, but shouldn't you have realized that I could just strangle an impetuous brat like you?"

"Ah! Master, you shouldn't leave your bed..." Chachamaru said, a trace of worry coloring the otherwise emotionless tone.

The warning came too late, as Eva lost her balance and fell over the railing with a loud thump, the catalyst potions she'd been slowly drawing out of a pocket smashing against the floor alongside her.

"Wha? Uh? Oh! This... is a serious fever!" Negi realized. "Then... she really was...?"

"Please give me a moment to settle her in the second-floor bed to rest. Aside from the flu, Master is also suffering from pollen allergies, you see..."

"Just what kind of vampire...?" Negi mumbled, his simultaneous offer to help move her quietly rebuffed. He was allowed to follow to the second floor, however.

"She... looks like she's in a great deal of pain." He said after a few moments.

"She is." Chachamaru confirmed. "With her magic bound, master's body is... essentially the same as any other frail ten year old girl's."

"I... I see.... I hadn't realized. I'm... sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?"

The gynoid processed the request. On the one hand, Negi was a teacher, which meant he deserved some measure of trustworthiness at the least. On the other hand, he was currently the enemy, which automatically negated any such measure of trust. With no other factors to consider...

"I am going to meet a contact at a university hospital today, to collect medicine effective in situations such as these. However, someone will have to tend to master while I'm away. If you could..."

"Of course."

"... pass the request along to Ranma-san?" The gynoid finished, leaving Negi in a somewhat awkward position as, for whatever reason, he'd thought that she was asking _him_ to...

He couldn't imagine why he'd gotten that impression, actually. He'd forgotten that he and Eva were enemies at the moment, and it would be difficult to trust him around her in such a position. With a sinking feeling, he realized that he'd already proven himself more than capable of ambushes and sneaky tactics, so Chachamaru really had no logical reason. And he _did_ have classes to teach, on top of that.

"Er... of course. If there's anything else...?" He wondered aloud before leaving.

Chachamaru waited patiently at Eva's bedside for approximately another half hour before the doorbell rang again, and she went to greet Ranma, some facet noting that, unlike Negi, the girl had waited patiently outside the door to be admitted entrance.

"Sensei passed your message along. Are you sure about this?" Ranma asked dubiously. "That is... I'm afraid I'm not at all experienced in helping people get well..."

"There shouldn't be a problem. Master seems to be sleeping quietly, and I have decided that you are a dependable person." She stated.

"If you say so..." Ranma answered, still doubtful. "And it does get me a free pass out of class, I'll admit... just try to finish your business as fast as you can, alright? This house is so cute... it makes my skin crawl and the hair on the back of my neck stand up." She admitted dourly.

"I believe that such was the intent of Master's decoration."

Ranma snorted and settled in to wait. It wasn't any more than ten minutes before the patient began to stir, coughing softly."

"Thirst..." Eva mumbled in her fitful sleep.

Ranma fetched a cup of cooling tea, but Eva wouldn't drink when she tried to press it on her. After a minute or two of fumbling, she carefuly moved up onto the bed and knelt, cradling the other girl's head carefully in her lap, slowly trickling the tea into her mouth and rubbing softly at her throat to induce automatic swallowing, which seemed to turn the trick. She settled back down for a short time.

"Hot.." Came another mumble, and Ranma quickly drew the curtains shut, cutting off the sunlight from the window. Naturally, the effort was quickly followed up by an equally uncomfortably mumbled "Cold..."

She was covered with sweat, and had begun almost thrashing in the bed, sleepwear-undergarments not just damp but thoroughly soaked. They had to be changed, which was an uncomfortable couple of minutes for Ranma, who _did_ like girls, and left her feeling vaguely like a pervert as she went about the switch as quickly as she could, looking as little as possible, though for the most part it was nothing she hadn't seen before in the communal baths.

Eva settled down and Ranma'd tucked her classmate back in, resting in the seat by her bed again, waiting quietly until she would have to play nursemaid again, when it hit her. She wasn't angry... not at all. She wasn't in the slightest bit irritated at taking care of the sick girl, the way she'd been when she arrived, and that deep, all-consuming icy rage that had driven her for so long had... faded. It was still there, and would likely build its way back to normal levels soon, but... she was _enjoying_ herself, taking care of someone who currently couldn't.

The realization disturbed her, on a profound level. Was this what they called... 'mothering instinct'? No, how could that be... Her mind was well and truly masculine, without a shadow of a doubt. Unfortunately for her quick convictions, however, one of their science classes had gone over some brief anatomy of organs, and so she had an uncomfortable memory now niggling her.

Her _mind_, yes, that was male. Her _brain_, however... that was completely female. It was a subtle, subtle difference, and she'd had years to adapt to it, and yet it seemed it was still throwing her a curve ball every now and again.

She very nearly left when she realized just how happy she was, in a pursuit that she'd always regarded as extremely feminine. For some reason, however, she couldn't muster up the willpower to actually walk out the door. After a few minutes holding her hand right on the knob, she slowly let go, turned, and walked right back up the stairs.

'You are a dependable person.'

Either there was something wrong with her, that she was subconsciously terrified of proving the unexpected compliment wrong, or the statement was more true than either she or the robot-girl had realized.

It wasn't wrong before the next series of fitful thrashings began, with murmured 'no's and 'stop's. There wasn't much Ranma knew about nightmares... her own had typically been answered with 'impromptu training sessions' if Genma had been bothered with them, and after a moment, she decided to leave it up to instinct, and carefully clambered up into the bed, resting Evangeline's head back into her lap. After a few more moments, she began awkwardly and haltingly stroking her fingers through the smaller girl's hair, sure that this _couldn't_ be right, and at the same time equally certain that this was _exactly_ the correct thing to do.

It was... actually kind of nice. Soothing, even, and not just on one side of the equation, as Ranma's eyes were drooping almost as fast as Eva was calming down.

When Ranma woke, Eva was obviously feeling much better, as their positions had completely reversed, her own fingers intertwined with Ranma's now-unbound locks, grinning in a weirdly smug and superior sort of way. She could see, out of the corner of her eye, Chachamaru looking vaguely guilty as she walked up the stairs with a tray of cosmetics in one hand and a dress with _entirely_ too much black, lace, and ruffles for her sanity in the other.

Hm. That had done it. Here came the familiar icy rage, especially as she noted that she'd been stripped and _her_ plain, functional undergarments had been replaced with... she didn't know what to call it, exactly, except _abomination_, but it was silky and the tag in the back with the washing instructions was apparently the largest piece of fabric in the whole thing.

She rose fast enough that Eva missed her chance to clench her fist and keep the redhead there to play 'living doll dressup' by force, snatching her school uniform up from where it was folded up on the chair she'd sat in earlier.

"None of this ever happened." She declared quietly, opening a nearby window and vaulting out, uncaring as to her current state of dress.

With spurts of the instant movement much improving her travel time, she was more than a mile away before she slowed down and found someplace out of the way to get changed and redressed. She'd give the... horrible, _horrible_ items stuffed into her pocket back later.

She spent the rest of the day furiously slamming herself around in an attempt to work out the trick to Void Instant Movement. By the time she'd cooled down it was hours later, and she'd started to get a handle on how it should theoretically work.

Expel ki from the foot, as well as gather it inside the extremity as with the previous stage, then in an instant make the expelled ki partially solid at just the right time to push off of it with the Instant Movement.

In theory, anyway. It would have been much simpler to just give that information in the book, rather than the way they'd phrased it in vague, half-hearted hints that boiled down to pretty much no help whatsoever, but she was more than used to the 'figure it out yourself' nature of sensei-speak writings. In any case, while it was easy enough to figure out what she was _supposed_ to be doing, going from that to the actual finished product was another kettle of fish altogether.

It was well after dark again before she finally called it quits for the day and left to bathe and sleep.

In the morning, Eva had decided to attend class, and she set down an envelope with the offending bits of cloth and string inside on her desk without a word or glance before continuing on to her own.

xxx

"Hm... interesting. Aside from what we already knew about the curse, this confirms what we'd only suspected, that it doesn't just run on that old geezer's magical reserves, but siphons off an enormous quantity of electrical energy from the school as well. A magic spell running off of electicity... he was a pretty high-tech person."

"I, also, am a high tech person." Chachamaru responded slightly vacantly, mind seeming to be elsewhere.

"Eh? Are you _moping_, Chachamaru? I don't remember that being something Hakase mentioned..."

Chachamaru remained silent, and Eva grumbled lightly.

"Geeze... get over it already. So she didn't respond to my little 'thank-you' quite the way I'd expected."

"It was mentioned that Ranma-san was unnerved by master's tastes..." Chachamaru said, just the slightest hint of reproach coloring her voice.

"Tch. No class. Oh well. Do something for her later then, and tack my name on it. Right now I need you focused. Our plan goes into action _tonight_. I can't wait to see the look on that brat's face, when he realizes that he doesn't have until the full moon to get ready, like he thought."

Chachamaru paused for a moment.

"Ah... that's right. Master, Negi-sensei has already formed a provisional contract with Kagurazaki Asuna."

"Eh? And you didn't think it was important to mention that until now?"

"I don't know. I will accept any punishment you feel correct for the oversight."

"Don't worry about it. It's not _that_ big of a deal."

xxx

The power cut off, prompting a few squeals from the girls at the other end of the bath. Ranma just lay still, fully intending to enjoy the hot water for as long as it lasted, and given the steam hanging close to the water, that could well be some time yet.

Squeals turned into a couple short shrieks, and from the splashing she could guess that a fight of some sort had started over there, and then came to an abrupt halt, and silence. Ranma frowned, and regretfully rose from the water, wrapping herself in a somewhat tattered bathrobe, shaking the clinging water from her hair as she moved to figure out what was going on.

The patch of the baths she'd headed for was empty, as the girls had apparently decided to leave the area in complete silence once the scuffle had ended. And they had left all of their clothes behind...

Ranma frowned, deep in thought and taking only a moment to return to the other end of the baths and slip on her undergarments before settling in to patiently wait behind an unobrusive tree. Something weird had happened here, and while it would probably be more sensible to try to track down where her classmates had run off to without their clothes, a hunch was telling her that there was more to come, and that lying carefully in wait here was also a good idea.

She wasn't mistaken, as the classmates returned, plus Chachamaru, clad in some sort of fetish-maid gear, as well as someone else who she'd only caught a quick glimpse of from her place of concealment. Only minutes later, Negi slogged into the room warily, staff held in front of him like a shield.

She couldn't quite make out the conversation at this distance, but caught something about 'partner' 'by yourself?' and 'courage' before slipping from her place and creeping closer in as silent a manner as she could manage.

"It's me! _Me_!" The yell came, as the unidentified one seemed to shift shape in a sort of 'bamf'-ey sound effect and puff of light smoke. Eva? So that was how it was...

Actually, Ranma realized, it didn't explain anything at all. Just a little more waiting and listening then, so she knew the right person to hit _first_. At this point, she very much doubted that any of them were getting out of this without at least a knock on the head for her frustration.

"I know it's before the full moon, but we'll be settling things tonight, boy. I'll be taking as much blood as is neccessary to break that curse."

"I see... but I won't just let you do as you please. If I win, you have to stop doing evil things!"

Ranma wanted to groan at the childish demand. 'Evil' was a very subjective term. It was still possible that she was misunderstanding all this, so just a little longer... the maids, minus Chachamaru, hopped down into the water and began advancing.

"Uh... controlling your own classmates... that's unfair..." Negi mumbled, slowly backing up.

"Really? Well that's because I'm an _evil_ mage!" Eva snarked.

The rest of Eva's statement blurred somewhat as the sledgehammer of frozen rage pounded in Ranma's temples. When she cleared it away, she realized that the realization of Eva's magehood had lost her a minute, as Negi had 'disarmed' two of the four and put them into a magical sleep, Chachamaru had entered the fray, and Eva was firing magic at Negi from the rear. A moment of hesitation, mind overloading as it tried to work out which of the two mages she wanted to punch _more_, cost her as they rushed out a smashed window, following Negi's full retreat.

Ranma was just a moment behind, but caught up quickly, and couldn't really have lost the trail as Sasaki had somehow jumped up onto Negi's flying stick and had been methodically divesting him of a bunch of tools she was sure were important, powerful, or both, but for the moment had simply mentally filed as 'magic crap'. She winced as Negi pulled a sneaky trick with a flag to get her off, and managed through some fluke of chance to take out Akashi as well in the same swoop, then continued on at a pace she was hard pressed to match without special techniques. A glance above confirmed where Eva and Chachamaru had gone, and Eva had begun bombarding the child-mage... the _other_ child-mage, anyway, with big, flashy blasts of magic.

They'd neared the bridge. As she noted that, she realized that it was actually a pretty good, and pretty bad place for a battle such as this, with flying opponents. She could only move so far with a single Instant Movement, and hadn't gotten anywhere near to getting the next level of pushing off of empty air to work something close to what it should be more than about one time in fifteen, so the big suspension cords and towers would actually be a benefit, allowing her to get high enough to potentially close with a flier. On the other hand, if she managed to mess up and fall into the water, then given that Eva was using _ice_ magic, it was over. The water was cold to begin with, a couple huge blocks of ice added to the mix, and the cold would _devestate_ her before she could clamber out, and she'd be useless for an hour or two thereafter.

High risk. This would be _fun_.

Eva gave her a funny look as she dropped down onto the bridge, having apparently not even noticed the other girl with how absorbed she was in targeting Negi. For his part, Negi's previously unhappy, but semi-confident face was now a rictus of horrified dismay.

"Wh-wh-wh-wh-what are _you_ doing out here?" He stammered, drawing a frown from Eva as she realized just how much less worried about _her_ he suddenly was.

"Oh? I smelled a fight brewing, so I couldn't sleep." She lied matter-of-factly. "More importantly, you two are mages. I'm surprised! Years in class with Eva, and not a hint, where I outed you well inside a day, sensei. But in any case, if there's a fight happening, I'm going to be involved. I'll be more than happy to take you _both_ on, mages!"

"That so?" Eva mused, smirking widely, and Negi's knees shook for a moment at the idea of those two teaming up, and then he began stumbling backwards. With two people, it would have just been hard. With three, the timing would have to be perfect....

"Still running, sense? Isn't that something of a cowardly tact-_what?_"

"Binding field. I... must admit I wasn't expecting miss Ranma to show up..." He said, nodding towards where she'd been caught just on the opposite edge of the field as Evangeline. "But fortunately, there's more than enough power to keep all three of you bound. Now... please surrender, Evangeline?"

She began to counter his proposal, but was interrupted by Ranma, who'd begun squirming against the ropes of light, teeth grit and eyes wide with rage... and a touch of fear? Interesting.

"Ah! Ranma-san, please stop struggling!" Negi yelled. "The more you strain against them, the tighter they sqeeze! Just relax, and once Evangeline has surrendered to my terms, I'll-"

"I _REFUSE_!" She roared, positively glowing with ki as she tore her arms free by brute force, the shining magical bonds dissolving into motes, but new ones surging upwards out of the seal at her feet almost as fast as she was tearing herself free. "Just hold still and wait patiently? Leave myself in the trap of a _mage_? I'd sooner _die_!?"

"Ahahahaha!" Eva cackled. "This is rich! Brute forcing a way out of such a binding? And you're just standing there gaping, instead of making good the retreat while you still had a chance? It seems Springfields are universally fools, to one degree or another. Chachamaru?"

"Yes, affirmative. Executing field dissolution program."

"I've been suffering and planning a way out of this place for fifteen years, waiting for an opportunity. Did you think that I _wouldn't_ devise counter-measures for everything I could think of?"

Ranma had torn herself free of almost all the bindings by the time the rest of them shattered and dissolved into the air.

"That... that's not fair!" Negi shouted. "All that work preparing the trap, for nothing? How...?"

"On her part, there are actually more than a few people about with the ability to do such things... countering magical bindings without counterspells or other prepared means, simply smashing their way through with a combination of overwhelming force and willpower. The other thing, I don't actually know how it works either. The explanation gives me a headache, but you can put it down to the power of advanced sciences."

"... Rastel-"

Negi was interrupted in his desperate attempt to get another spell going by a knee to the abdomen.

"I've decided." Ranma proclaimed, then pointed down at the wheezing boy. "You, I will punch with my right arm. Eva, with my left."

"Is that so? Mind you leave him in one piece, now. Bruises are fine, but I'm not going to lap his blood off the ground." The vampire mocked.

The vicious backhand from behind came as a complete surprise, as she'd somewhat expected Ranma to do the _smart_ thing when fighting multiple mages and focus on one until it was finished before moving on to the next. Her barrier had deflected a good chunk of the force behind the blow, but still... it was like going headfirst into a speeding truck!

"Gack!?"

"You're in better condition. If I hit sensei too hard, too fast, he'll die... and then I can't hurt him anymore." She pointed out reasonably, before stomping at the ground where Eva had been for a moment before rolling out of the way.

"Gwa!" Eva eloquently stated at the crater left behind from the action, finally realizing that she was up against a serious opponent, and could end up in actual danger if she wasn't careful. Chachamaru snatched her up, just as she realized that she'd rolled into a leg, and she only followed up on that with the uncomfortable realization that she'd just come far too close to having her ribs punched in after Ranma's left fist made a second impact crater to match the first.

"Chachamaru." Ranma said, pausing to turn around and smack Negi one, as he'd just clambered to his feet and was supporting himself with his staff. "I don't really want to fight you, particularly. Thing is, though, you're standing between me and a mage, right now. Tell you what... you turn around and watch the clouds for a few minutes, and I'll make a point of not just not inflicting any permament damage, but I'll try to avoid broken bones too, alright?"

"I'm afraid that I'm bound to defend my master." Chachamaru countered reprovingly.

"I see. Well in that case, I suppose I've no choice but-"

"ERMINE FLASH!"

"-erming what n-_AARGMYEYES!"_

When the dazzle cleared, Negi was gone.

"Ug... sensei ran away." Ranma grumbled, blinking rapidly. "He doesn't seem to realize, that just means that once I track him down, I'll be _really angry_!"

xxx

"Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap!" Asuna hissed from behind the huge pillar she'd hidden behind with the severely battered Negi. "Stupid _ferret_! You should have told me that _she_ was here too, and I'd have gotten more backup!"

"Okay, one, I'm an _ermine_. Two, I didn't know, okay! Besides, you're seriously okay with more pac-?"

"Of course not! But against that _monster-woman_ out there, I'll take any help I can get. Honestly, I'd be happier if we'd taken the time to get everyone else in the dorm out here. So, anyone got any good news?"

"She said she wasn't going to kill me!" Negi said, before frowning and continuing. "Although... that's apparently because if I was dead, then she couldn't keep hurting me."

"Hah. Obviously, she's never heard of necromancy." Chamo stated, before his brain caught up to his mouth and he actually _thought_ about what he'd just said.

"_Correction_: Obviously, she's never, ever, _ever going to hear_ about the word that must now not ever be spoken, lest she happen to be listening. Moving right along, time to re-do the pactio. A half-hearted kiss on the forehead or cheek like last time means less than half the power. No time to discuss it."

"Mmf!"

xxx

There was a flash of light, revealing where Negi had fled to as he and Asuna stepped back out into the open.

"There you are. So, big sister came to save you. Do you think she can?"

"What are you talking about? This is much closer to a fair fight, two on three!" Asuna countered.

"'Three' nothing." Ranma rebuffed. "I'm a side of this all on my own. Are you ready?"

With an almost unnoticed nod, Negi and Eva took Asuna completely off guard by charging up a spell, and as one turning and releasing it at Ranma.

"Ten arrows of light!"

"Ten arrows of darkness." Eva agreed.

Ranma herself didn't get much time to say anything before the first one caught her and slammed her into a wall, followed by nineteen more concussive, crushing body blows.

When they finished, she slowly dropped to her knees and vomited up what looked like it had to be a lungful of blood, horrifying Negi.

"Caught me... off guard." She grumbled, still on her hands and knees.

"Well. Now that that's dealt with, let's get back to-" Eva said, before being rudely interrupted by a spinning kick from behind herself and realizing that Ranma had disappeared from where she'd left her.

"I'm not done fighting yet!" She growled, blood still dribbling freely from her wide smile. "Don't count me out... this is the most fun I've had in _years_! I want _more_!"

Negi had wisely used the offered distraction to begin his own most powerful spell. It would leave him at the point of being unable to fight at all... but if he could get one, or both of them in its area of effect, then...

"Spirits of thunder, spirits of wind! Gather unto me! Oh, wind of the south seas, ye who blows, clad in thunder.... Yuuis Tempestus Fragrans!"

Eva had just a moment spared to glance away from the fight and realize what was happening before Ranma's iron grip slammed onto her wrist.

"Let me go, fool, I need to-!"

It struck.

In its wake, Negi was almost completely exhausted, only able to cling to consciousness by a desperate grip, Ranma and Eva's clothes had completely disintegrated and fallen away from them, and Ranma was significantly more battered than she'd been a minute ago, bruises rising all over her body, electric burns here and there, and a few deep gashes oozing blood for flavor. She wobbled a little before shaking it off.

Eva, aside from being naked and enraged, was completely unharmed and had floated up and away from the bridge.

"Little punk... just as could be expected from _his_ son, but it's not over yet!"

Ranma grinned as she settled into a solid stance, perfectly prepared to continue the battle, even though Negi was now pretty much down and out for the night.

"Master, no!" Chachamaru yelled. "The blackout is ending much earlier than planned, you must- _MASTER_!" She yelled as the lights began rapidly switching on and heavy blasts of lightning slammed into Eva, who was left screaming from the pain in a way none of the others had managed, or possibly even could manage.

"Wha-?" Asuna dumbly asked, out of surprise.

"With the blackout over, the seal binding Master's power is restored! Without magic, she'll fall into the lake, and...!"

Ranma grunted softly, neither pleased nor upset with the idea of the mage drowning after making an error in how long she could push things. And then...

Suddenly, for just a moment, it wasn't the enemy hovering in there in midair, pained and starting to fall to her death as the magic left her, and they weren't on a bridge. They were alone in a bedroom, and Ranma was looking down at a frail, very sick child, thrashing in her sleep. Then it was gone, and reality had taken hold again.

And Ranma's body was already moving on its own, shooting past Chachamaru and diving off the bridge towards a semi-lucid Eva, the anger gone for a short time, and unable to do anything else. There was a sort of dull surprise written on Eva's face, and her mind seemed to be elsewhere for a moment as she caught hold of her limp body and spun around, pushing off the water into the Instant Motion technique long before her mind had registered that, as it wasn't solid, and she'd had no practice, she shouldn't have been able to manage the feat, and shooting in spurts up the side of the bridge.

She looked a mess when she came to a stop, face blank, naked, and bleeding profusely from the aggravated wounds, an equally unclothed and smaller girl gently cradled in her arms.

"Why...?" Asuna wondered, the filter between her brain and mouth having apparently come dislodged from surprise. "As a mage, she's... you hate her just as much as Negi, right..? But..."

Finally, with the awkward question, Ranma seemed to get ahold of herself, face twisting through a number of weird expressions before settling on some sort of disgust as she tossed Eva roughly at Chachamaru, stalking off with a slight limp.

"Hey! Don't, don't just walk off! Answer me!"

She couldn't do that. In all honesty, she simply didn't understand why she'd done it herself. One less mage in the world, even if it was someone she knew, could only be a good thing. Right? But it seemed Kagurazaki wouldn't just lay off of her moment of confusion. Instead of trying to answer with the truth, she decided to instead invent a plausible sounding rationalization.

"Tch." She grumbled. "If a practicing mage happens to die in battle, then it's no concern of mine.. but I'm _not_ simply going to stand aside and watch some little girl fall in a lake and drown, even if she _does_ part-time as an evil monster."

"That... that makes no sense!" Asuna yelled. "That, that's almost directly counter to everything else you've said! Just because she can't use magic _right now_, you're going to treat her differ-?"

Ranma was suddenly right up in her face, not an inch away, moonlight gleaming off of the slowly thickening blood all over her face.

"Stop. Questioning. Me." She hissed, equal parts irritation and pain. "That's... the only answer I have for you, like it or not..."

Asuna seemed to register the sort of lost tone to Ranma's voice and backed down, watching with a sweatdrop as the other girl staggered another six feet before collapsing.

"I guess we got out of this fight pretty lucky, huh Chacha-..." She trailed off as the gynoid had set herself up to supporting her master until she regained her balance, then moved to collect Ranma's fallen form and was off, ignoring the attempt at conversation.

"L... li'l help... please?" Negi mumbled, and Asuna picked him up, grumbling about rude robots as he finally allowed himself to pass out.

xxx

Ranma came to that morning stiff and barely able to move, wearing not just bandages, but artistically applied makeup, stockings and undergarments that were somehow _uncomfortably_ soft, a white dress with ruffles and ribbons and lace and embroidery of roses and a few chibi-unicorns, white lace gloves up past the elbow, a tiara, a bouquet of lilies arranged in her hands, and Chachamaru standing next to the bed and fidgeting guiltily.

"If I recall correctly." Ranma mused aloud. "There's a mirror or two in here. I would very much suggest that you cover or move them, because if I see myself in this getup, I'll have to kill.... I haven't decided yet. Something or someone will most certainly be dying though."

The gynoid quickly moved to obey, prompting a cackle as Eva made her way up the stairs.

"You're an interesting one. How would you like to be my minion, once I'm free of my curse?" She offered.

"If this is standard uniform, then I'd really rather not. Plus, the whole magic thing means I'd probably go psycho and end up stabbing you in your sleep or something... I kind of have issues, there." Ranma said, deciding to go with full, undiluted honesty this time.

"Yes... surprises like that are half the fun of such an arrangement." Eva said, smiling and nodding. "You're _sure_ you aren't interested?"

"If you really don't mind that the arrangement's most likely end would be with one or both of us being dead... eh, why not. I've got a curse of my own to look into, can't hurt to have someone who actually knows what they're doing on my side. I'll just try to remember not to kill you until last."

"Fair enough." Eva agreed, then took Ranma completely by surprise as she swooped in and claimed her first kiss without any other warning, her eyes widening just in time to be blinded by the sudden lightshow.

"Heh... pactio. This card is now the bond between us as master and retainer."

She waggled it at Ranma, who managed to glimpse an image much like her own coming into focus on it before Eva tucked it carefully away and she noted something more important.

"I just kissed a _mage_!" She gagged in shock.

"Oh, you know you enjoyed it."

"It feels like there are maggots crawling out of my throat..." She whimpered. "I need to brush my teeth... with steel wool and bleach."

"Hey, hey! Enough of that! Geeze... and I know for a fact you like girls, don't think I missed the blushing-booby-ogling you tried to hide in the health checks."

"You're a _mage_!" Ranma whined as reasonably as she could manage. "It's like I just had my first kiss stolen by an alien race that evolved into slime-coated-cockroach-people."

"_First_?" Eva noted with undisguised interest, and Ranma's mouth snapped shut.

"Anyway, aside from a physical token of our agreement, this card has some other properties. I can use it to infuse you with my own magic, it can create a magic item for your use..."

"No offense, but I'd really rather hang myself with a rope braided of my own intestines than use either of those..." Ranma denied.

"Eh, your call. And actually, until this curse is dealt with I only have any significant amount of magic during the full moon, so the first one's pretty irrelevant anyway. But there are other properties that'll probably just bore or irritate you, so I won't bother to explain about them."

"Sure, fine, whatever. Do you know when my muscles will start working again?" 'So I can leave this den of insanity and get my head back on straight' was not spoken, but very much present in the question.

"Probably tomorrow morning. My medicines are very effective, but you've seriously wrecked your body. Be a good girl and rest, now! Chachamaru will be more than happy to take care of you."

"Eh?"

xxx

A.N.

Stuff. Mental Notes On The Chapter. Comments. Tired. I'll upload this in the morning.

Pre-post edit- Can't think of anything. Had all kinds of stuff to mention, but can't recall any of it. My bad.


	3. Chapter 3

In all honesty, the only two reasons that Ranma had agreed to the 'Minion' offer after Eva pressed a second time were entirely subconscious realizations. First, that she would, in fact, need someone to dirty their hands with magic in order to deal with her curse. There would simply be no escaping that, and she had two choices to pick from, at this point. Second, a more primal realization, that she was _helpless in the stronghold of the enemy_. Or not quite completely helpless, as the longer she lay still, the faster her ki re-accumulated and sped her healing, but very near it. As such, she was far more amenable to... anything that Eva happened to think of, really, than she would have been normally.

Of course, that didn't mean that she would just immediately agree to everything, either. It took more than an hour of 'idle chitchat', interspersed with several pointed questions before she cracked and agreed to exchange complete information of the curses they were under, and the background leading up to them.

For her part, she was vaguely disgusted with the sordid love-obsession-tale that ended with Eva being bound by a powerful geas to remain enrolled and on campus for the past decade and a half. The possibility that, as the Thousand Master had apparently _died_ five years into the punishment instead of returning to free the vampire, Eva had chosen a _new_ fixation with _remarkably_ similar circumstances did, unfortunately, cross her mind in an instant of sheer, unmitigated horror, and was quickly banished to the deepest, darkest recesses of her mind, sealed behind no less than thirteen mental barricades.

On Eva's side of the spectrum, she had never before heard of such a place as 'Jusenkyo', and had privately decided that she would have to inspect Ranma _much_ more closely during the next full moon, when she would have the best ability to determine if she was, in fact, cursed. Far more likely, in her opinion, was that a misogynist father had raised his daughter as male, then fed her a load of bollocks when an unusually early puberty had set in and made continuing the charade impossible. Though... in that case, she couldn't _begin_ to figure out where the father's 'panda' transformation came in without far more extensive study in the field of psychology.

Either way, his loss was her gain, as even with the magic factor involved Ranma seemed to bear her _far_ less hostility than the fool who had abandoned her due to gender. Even if Ranma really _had_ been born male, she couldn't easily see her turning back after such a blatant betrayal.

Better still was the girl's own _magical_ potential. Not that she truly expected to actually be able to convince her to _use_ it, at least herself. To be honest, the ability she could sense wasn't that great in comparison to most mages, merely slightly above average at best, but in _comparison_.... If the girl had chosen to throw herself into magical study in an attempt to find a 'cure' for the curse of femininity, then she had no doubt that she would be even now being touted as the Thousand Master reincarnated. Most mages, when they began, had only the tiniest fraction of that kind of magical power, and had to go through a significant amount of training to force it to swell, as it was an acknowledged fact that magical abilities didn't grow on their own after one was born.

The irony that such potential was bound within an individual who would happily _die _instead of using it, should such a situation crop up, was simply delicious. And while Eva could only support one probationary pactio at the moment, along with the much less magically intensive Doll contracts, _Ranma_ could be a link in a chain, both Ministra and, technically, Magister. One didn't have to _use_ their magic in order to _supply_ it to others. For that matter, while frowned upon, siphoning magic away from someone was actually one of the fastest ways to promote its growth, though that wasn't public knowledge.

Ranma could prove to be ever so useful. Of course, she would have to tread delicately, and it would take a while to think up plans based upon Ranma herself, rather than simply working her into new plans. Hm, hm...

It was like a long running game of chess, but provided with an extra rule that, at any moment, your opponent could decide to ignore the board and pieces go for your throat with a knife instead. The idea was simply delightful, actually, very much in tune with a vampiric inner nature.

It was almost a pity, then, that she could not turn the girl. While she wouldn't be quite as powerful as a Shinso such as herself, Ranma would make a wonderful vampire... but becoming a mythical creature, with magic thrumming through every aspect of her person and entwining itself naturally with everything she did would no doubt lead to her swift self-destruction, and _that_ wouldn't be amusing at all. Or rather, while amusing in its own right, it would be over quickly and would cost her a possibly much more long-term source of amusement.

Speaking of which...

xxx

Mahoranma

xxx

"Okay... I'll bite. What's in the creepy coffin-shaped box you got from the basement?" Ranma asked, masking the slight hint of worry about what the answer might be.

"One of Maru's predecessors."

... Well, as answers went, at least it was better than some of the things contained in magic boxes of stories. Ranma then paused and eyed the size of the box, then the gynoid in question. Then the box again.

"So... laptop version?" She guessed, equating the situation with computers and prompting a startled bark of laughter from Evangeline, and a confused look, followed by an almost-blush from Chachamaru. Only _then_ did Ranma finally realize the innuendo present in the question.

"I meant like-"

"No need to explain." Eva chortled. "But no. Maru is a machine... as far as I can tell, aside from taking a little magic now and then to keep her going and supplying her with sentience, that's all there is to it. Chachazero, on the other hand... a wooden puppet, given life only through magic. Significantly more magic than I have available to give, while under the curse. She still had all senses intact, and could speak, but could no longer move in any way."

"And so you sealed her to sleep in a magic box, until the curse was broken?"

"What? No. Nothing magic about this box, though she _might_ be sleeping, I guess. I put her away because she wouldn't stop whining and it was getting on my nerves."

"Ah. I suppose it was my fault for assuming a level of humanity that I'd forgotten simply doesn't exist within you." Ranma deadpanned.

There was something that _might_ have been muffled laughter from inside the box.

"In any case, I fail to see what the point of this little story is, unless... you don't seriously expect a 'woe is me' story to be enough to coax me into _magic_, do you?" Ranma grumbled.

"Oh? And here I thought you would be happy about my idea, which isn't quite what you were thinking. If you insist, though-"

"Wait. You're giving up too easily. Either this is a trick, or you're tricking me into thinking it's a trick in order to trick me. Either way, explain."

"Oh, it's nothing big. I've already said that Zero needs a pretty constant influx from the master of her contract just to move. And you seem to be laboring under the misapprehension that since someone with no magic cannot _use_ magic is true, that the inverse, someone who doesn't use magic _doesn't have any_ is also..."

She could tell by the horrified way Ranma's face had suddenly twisted, as though something repugnant had been shoved at it, that she'd won this round.

"Fine, I'll do it." Ranma snapped, before pausing to wonder if, perhaps, the trick had been in tricking her into thinking that Eva was tricking her into thinking that it was a trick in order to trick her. Ranma had a headache from trying to think of every possible eventuality for the situation in advance..

"No turning back now!" Eva said, sliding open the boxes lid, opening pointed at the redhead. "Chachazero, your new Master."

After a long moment of anticipation, what looked like Chachamaru in deformed miniature and a wide-eyed creepy grin toddled out, hopping up onto the bed to get a face to face look. Ranma stared impassively back, trying her hardest not to freak out and smash the magic doll.

"You'll do, I guess." Zero decided. "So when do we get to start hurting people?"

"Bloodthirsty little muppet, aren't you?" Ranma noted, oddly feeling a little better at the revelation. "I'm sure I can let you cut up a mage at some point. I'll even show you a little trick I read about, where if you cut them _just_ right, they don't bleed much at all, so you can hurt them longer before they bleed out."

"I _like_ you, Master!" Zero declared with undisguised joy.

Evangeline began to get the funny idea that maybe, just maybe, she hadn't thought this out quite as well as she probably should have.

xxx

By evening, Ranma had recovered enough to stagger around the house, albeit with frequent rest stops, and had discovered that Eva's judgement on her recovery was accurate and she'd be fine in the morning, just with a few new scars.

Eva had begun sorting through a pile of papers. Apparently, she had quite an intricate web of connections in the Mahora districts and surrounding city, so that if she _absolutely_ had to have something done off campus, there were people she could request favors from. Of course, they would reply with requests of their own, though unless they were within the bounds of Mahora, she couldn't really do anything about them herself, and had lost a few contacts that way when they refused to take the hint.

She could have sent Chachamaru off, certainly, but that would have left her without the gynoid's line of defense for a brief time, and so had never been previously considered. With _Ranma_ to call on, though...

"There's a Mad Scientist assembly this weekend, a few blocks into the city. Hakase invited me to come along, without thinking about my limitations, so you'll have to step in for me."

"What? Why?"

"Rule number one of gruntwork. The minion takes all the crap jobs, everything the master can't do, and everything the master simply doesn't _want_ to do. You'll just have to get used to it."

"There are moments when I think about how I'll eventually kill you, and almost regret the neccessity." Ranma grumbled. "And then, there are moments like these, that make me realize _just how much_ I'll enjoy it."

"Make her scream!" Zero piped up, drawing a startled glance from Eva. The puppet had been awfully quick to turn on her...

"Either way... unless you want to take a shot right now, you don't have much of a choice." She pointed out. "Try to enjoy it, huh? There's all kinds of interesting characters at such conventions. Just don't agree to any experiments of any kind, no matter how harmless they seem."

"_That_ much, I'd have figured out on my own."

xxx

The rest of the school week had passed as normal, Ranma explaining Zero away as 'Hm? The doll? Animatronics. Or something. Why are you asking?'. Understandably, few were willing to press the issue with the Ice Queen, and they swiftly got used to the new 'person' in class. Hakase had wanted to take her apart to figure out how she worked before things were properly explained to her, though.

For whatever reason, Zero wasn't terribly fond of her.

Even so, she'd passed on the directions to the assembly, and a complimentary labcoat and 'guest' pin.

The place wasn't actually difficult to find... it was simply one more building much like any other surrounding it. A deceptive camoflauge of sorts, or possibly the simple fact that the meeting place was rented, and so there was no possibility to decorate it to their own standards.

The people inside, however, were quite a different story.

Deth and Doom, PhD, had been the first to introduce themselves, instigating a long run of people wandering past and speaking with Eva's stand-in.

Seras was drunk at the time, had apparently been so since before coming, and his specialty field was never quite agreed on. Some said robotics, others medicine, and he himself seemed completely befuddled by the question. Nonetheless, he held some measure of casual respect with the other eccentrics.

Madaraki Fran had filled in for her creator much as Ranma had stepped up for Eva. The nature of the literally stitched-together young woman hinted that Madaraki was some sort of biologist, or zoologist, if Ranma was remembering the terms right. Her much less cheerful assistant was far more interesting, however, as she moved like a fighter and was eyeing Ranma up at the same time that Ranma was inspecting her.

Yes, Ranma would have to speak with Veronica later, about...

Her thoughts, and the round of introductions, were cut off abrubtly with the barrel of a gun being set at the side of her head, similar weapons being cocked and revealed by perhaps a dozen other labcoat-less 'guests'.

"Everyone in the center of the room, now!" The one holding Ranma at gunpoint barked, seeming to expect a cowed group to quickly obey the demand.

If so, he was frustrated and disappointed when the gathered scientists seemed more vaguely bemused by the whole situation than anything else, and moved at their own pace, idly chattering amongst themselves. Ranma sauntered along as well, ignoring the insistent prodding of the gun at her head.

Obviously frustrated at things not going _exactly_ to his plan, the leader barked orders to the others, and a pair started setting up some kind of video camera and transmission device as small machineguns were kept trained on the large group.

"We gonna kill 'em?" Zero asked aloud, but softly enough not to be distinct over everything else.

"Maybe." Ranma replied. "I haven't decided. They certainly don't have the _slightest_ idea of what they're getting into."

"Shut up, eggheads!" the leader barked, then glowered as he was completely ignored. "SHUT UP!" He roared again, firing at least a half-clip into the air above their heads.

It didn't silence them instantly, but it did get the attention of the assembled brains.

"Now.... just keep quiet and nobody has to get shot." He growled, trying his best to intimidate them. Had they been the normal variety of scientists, it might even have been effective, but most of those assembled dissected things more intimidating than him simply to keep themselves amused on slow days. Needless to say, they weren't exactly impressed.

Snarling with disgust he turned and barked more orders, starting up the camera. The hooligans had apparently not only gotten ahold of this time, date, and location somehow, but had also hacked and were broadcasting a ransom demand over all the local television channels.

The leader made some sort of vague threat about 'bad things' happening if they sent in police instead of handing over the cash. Then he punctuated the statement with a fumbled pawing at Ranma's breasts.

Almost the moment he did it, he got a chill right down his spine, and a sudden, vivid hallucination of a cloaked figure with a scythe palming his face. For Ranma's part, she'd decided that this little farce had gone on _quite_ long enough. The moment passed, and the head thug was suddenly retracting an arm with every bone from the elbow to the fingertips _shattered_. Ranma spent only another mere instant to decide to remain 'in character', to play off Chachazero as some sort of crazy science instead of a magic doll before she spoke.

"That was _very_ rude of you." She stated reprovingly. "Unit Zero? Terminate."

"Yay! I get to play!" The childlike doll yelled, pulling a pair of knives as she jumped out of Ranma's arm and into a savage blur of mayhem.

The rest of the goons watched the debacle in a sort of horrified dismay, and Ranma, sensing that they wouldn't be interfering for a while, filled the boring silence with a monologue, containing both forthright truth and outright, bald-faced lies, mingling them as she pleased, flitting from topic to topic and weaving a tale that didn't really fit the current situation at all, but was vaguely amusing in its own right.

"What does it mean, to live? Or to die? Difficult questions, best left in the hands of philosophers. What is sentience, to understand your surroundings and desires in more than the basest of animalistic fashions? Is it a blessing? Is it a curse? Certainly, one never sees an animal clutched in the throes of depression, so common to humanity. And yet, animals lead such simple, pointless lives, with no hope of rising further, where humanity can be so much more.

What is war? How can war be anything but the most extreme expression of sentience? Have ever dogs, as a whole, declared fued upon goats? Or a nation of cats come to universal enmity with ferrets? There is violence, yes, among animal life, but _war_... war is a pursuit left to sentients alone.

What is hatred? What is greed? What is emotion of any kind? What is this human invention of the 'soul'? I must admit, none of these questions had ever occured to me in my youth, under the stern gaze of my uneducated boar of a guardian, whose only goal was that I study and learn to use the family art of battle. How ironic, then, that when I _did_ begin to ask such questions of myself, after his abandonment of me, that I pushed far further in the field than he could ever have imagined of me, far further than I believe he ever traveled.

His wish was that I become a martial _artist_. Art, alone. No true understanding of what I was doing, no care for anything but the art I practiced, merely taking what I was fed and creating something of terrible beauty with it. I was not to question. But I had to! After I pressed on upon my own, there were so many questions to be answered!

How does the human body work? What are its weaknesses, its strengths? What are its supposed limits? More importantly, how would one _break_ those very limits, as I had seen done so many times? What was this 'ki', whispered of with such reverence? How did it work, and how did one obtain the use of it? Why was such a remarkable thing kept secret? Why, when I discovered it wasn't, had nobody before attempted to quantify 'ki'?

My best estimation... Ki is a natural bio-electric energy field, created daily by the simple fact of being alive. Everything that lives creates ki, however only those with some measure of sentience can take hold of it, to use it for any real purpose, and it has such fascinating uses. Enhancing one's body, one's speed and strength by far past what should be possible for a certain amount of muscle... this was by far only the meanest and most humble uses of ki, one discovered many times by accident by disciplined martial artists and street thugs seeking thrills alike, even in such stories as women frantically lifting and moving cars out of their way in desperation for their infant's safety, mistakenly attributed to adrenaline. Even stories of animals that move faster, or are stronger by far than the norm, bringing up the interesting quandary... is humanity the only creature that can use ki because we are the only sentient species, or is the truth the other way around entirely? That humanities evolution into sentience was only due to its progenitors widespread discovery and use of ki stimulating the mind as well as the body? Certainly, there are myths and tales all throughout history and around the globe, of animals being more than meets the eye.

I still practice the martial arts, to assist in my studies, to bring me one step closer to finding answers for these questions, and regularly discovering new questions to pose. I am a _scientist_ of war, now, and this bio-electric field of ki is my primary study. Can you see now, father, what you cast aside?"

Ranma's rambling came to a close, along with delighted applause from the other gathered scientists and Zero, and she was startled to realize that she could no longer recall what, of her monologue, was intended to be the truth and what had been invented from whole cloth. The noise of twelve machine guns being leveled carefully in her direction followed the last clap dying down.

She smiled at the camera.

"And now... it is time for a new experiment. Of the two, which is faster? A martial technique promoting a near instantaneous speed, or a hailstorm of lead? I'm so fortunate... I'd assumed that it would be weeks yet before I could arrange for such a test on my own. It seems good things _do_ happen to bad people! Let's begin!"

She timed the burst of speed to coincide exactly with the first sweaty mook opening fire, actually being more than a little interested in the answer to that question. In truth, there was no accurate way of measuring it in such a situation, but she was sure to be appropriately smug as she lifted him up from behind by the neck and hurled him into the next thug over.

"It looks like _I'm_ faster, after all."

The next few seconds were filled with absolute mayhem and screaming her own shrill laughter as she methodically took out one of the mooks after another, and accidentally ending up having two of them shoot each other, possibly fatally, at the same time when she paused a moment in between them. She wasn't sure whether to count that as double points, or a loss, as she really _hadn't_ intended for anyone to be permamently harmed.

Except the head thug. He'd been immediately and deliberately marked for death since the moment of his indiscretion, and Zero had been happy to oblige with that. Really, what was left of him was pretty much a finely minced puddle by this time. A bit more extreme than the instant kill skull smash _she_ would have gone for, but more proof that she and the little maniac doll would get along just fine.

"Do you mind if I...?" Fran asked, pointing at the collapsed gunmen, in the same tone any random teenage male might say 'you gonna eat that?'.

"Hm, be my guest." Ranma said, with no idea of the horrible, horrible fates those words had consigned the faceless goons to. Not that she would particularly have cared even had she known, after all the bastards had shot at her. "In turn, perhaps a private word or two with miss Veronica, later?"

The dour young woman started lightly at the question, and again when Fran instantly agreed to the terms and ushered in her own faceless, rad-suit wearing goons in to cart out the unconscious and bleeding bodies. One stepped back in afterwards with a mop.

"Is this thing still on?" Ranma wondered, leaning down towards the camera. "I'm not good with machines... this little light is blinky. Is it supposed to be blinky? Where's the power button... you know what, screw it."

Instead of calling over someone who _did_ know what they were doing with machines, Ranma solved the problem quickly and efficiently with her fists, leaving a heap of sparking wreckage where there had once been a decently cobbled-together thingamajig. With a huff, it started smoking, and then erupted into flame.

"Alright, back to the party!"

"That was fun, Master! I especially liked the bleeding and the screaming. Can we do that again?"

"Maybe later."

xxx

"So... you wanted to speak with me?" Veronica managed, uncommonly nervous.

She'd known the girl was _dangerous_ since the moment she'd caught sight of her. _How_ dangerous, though, she'd not immediately realized. She could probably have dealt with a dozen armed men all at once on her own as well, that being what she had been created for and having had a lot of experience in that department.

Without a scratch? Moving so fast as to avoid the bullets entirely? Without any weapons and incapacitating the opponents with her _bare hands_, as well as, it seemed, ensuring that not a single stray bullet had gone towards the huddled clump of eccentric geniuses? Veronica very much doubted she was capable of more than the very last one, possibly the first one as well on a good day. Needless to say, she was more than a little awestruck about the 'battle scientist'.

"Yes. You're a.... _fascinating_ specimen." Ranma drawled.

Somehow, she had expected something along those lines.

"Then... you wish to study me?" She ventured, uncertainly. And more than prepared to shut down the conversation if certain key words, 'vivisection', for example, entered the equation.

"You might say that. However... it's really more of a test. So... show me."

Ranma settled into a loose stance, and Veronica understood. And she was, oddly enough, a little flattered as she stepped to the attack.

The battle itself lasted several long minutes, interspersed with cheers from the mini battle-bot thing that had, itself, defied logic and much of what she knew of science, and served quite well to show just how huge the gap between herself and Ranma was. She'd learned a little of a few types of martial art, to supplement her abilities, but for the most part had relied on the fact that she'd been created far faster and stronger than a human of her size and build could theoretically become, and had never gotten weaker than that. And _Ranma_ was faster and stronger still!

It was like trying to fight the wind.

By the time it ended, she was thoroughly exhausted, and Ranma hadn't even broken a sweat.

"Hm. Not bad. I'd give you a D. Don't look so upset. Your average thug or martial arts dabbler wouldn't even rate on my scale at all, just scoring a letter grade instead of failing outright is an achievement in its own right. Keep working hard!"

Veronica felt a dual swell of pride, at the vague praise, and humiliation, as she realized that she hadn't actually worked much at all towards her battle abilities.

"I don't usually get involved with the projects of others... but why not? Catch."

She flipped a tiny booklet through the air, obviously made of copier paper folded over and stapled, scribbled in blue pen, and with a super-deformed doodle of Ranma on the front, smiling and giving a thumbs up. The caption was 'Ki and You, a guide for beginners.'

"Ahahaha, scratched that out one evening when I was really bored after homework. Took the good bits of twenty seperate scrolls and texts and combined them into one brief manuscript. Was thinking about getting it published, before I realized that if I did that then the information would definitely end up getting into entirely undeserving hands, so I just kept it around instead. You're welcome."

Veronica stared wide-eyed at the gift for several long minutes after Ranma left, more than aware that 'ki' was what Ranma had claimed to be what allowed her to be so... superhuman, before carefully, delicately opening the first page.

xxx

"That was actually pretty fun." Ranma noted while carefully packing away the labcoat into her closet, right alongside the three school uniforms and two sets of casual clothes. "I wonder if the trip to Kyoto will be as amusing...?"

"Shrimpy teach mentioned that! What's there to do in Kyoto?"

"Much the same as there is to do around here, I presume. Except that _there_, none of the street thugs will have heard of me yet. Actually, that probably means I'll definitely have fun. It takes longer and longer to hunt down someone these days."

xxx

"Classes 3A, 3D, 3H, 3J, and 3S who are going to Kyoto, please locate your instructor for roll-call and group division."

Ranma wandered through the crowd, Zero perched on her shoulder, settling into group six of class 3A alongside Sakurazaki and Rainyday.

"You're..." Negi began as he tallied them.

"I'm the leader of group 6." Setsuna began. "But Evangeline and Chachamaru are absent, so it's just us three. What should...?"

"I see. That's something of a problem, but it wasn't really expected for them to come." Negi mumbled. "I suppose I could divide you up into different groups...?"

"That shouldn't be neccessary, sensei." Ranma broke in, more than happy to keep the social interaction at a minimum. "If there were only two of us, then maybe, but I think three is more than enough for a group."

Negi considered for a long moment.

"I... suppose you're correct. I'll leave you three to it, then. Please take your seats. Please try not to get hurt, lost, or cause anyone else any trouble, alright?"

They settled in quietly as the train pulled out. About fifteen minutes later, just as Zero had started to get bored with the silence, there was a sudden and unexplained plague of frogs.

Amidst screams and Zero's happy cheers, Ranma looked down to where one had nestled on her bosom, croaking softly as it stared back up at her. She carefully removed it and tossed it toward the front, where the Ku girl was stuffing frogs by the armload into a sack.

"That was funny! I wish I had a hammer." Zero lamented. "Squish the froggies!"

"No need for that. Frogs can be tasty if prepared correctly, and the French consider them to be a delicacy. I've boiled frogs for food more than a few times myself."

Zazie shuffled awkwardly as Setsuna rose and took her leave as the frogs were slowly rounded up, leaving them with another long patch of silence.

"I'm bored again." Zero declared. "You should do something fun, so I can watch."

"Oh? So now the muppet is making demands?" Ranma wondered aloud, teasingly.

Zazie, for her part, cocked her head to the side for a moment, then pulled a jar of small, colorful rubber balls out of her sack and began to juggle. By the time Setsuna made her way back, Ranma had joined the juggling, they'd gone from three balls to seven, and Zero had tossed in a pair of knives and a plastic doll-sized chainsaw for flavor, and was cheering every time it looked like one or the other was about to slip up and stab themselves through the palm. Zazie had caught on to this, and was now making a point out of looking like she only just barely, and awkwardly, caught the knives every time.

The delight at that, and little 'aww's the puppet made when she pulled off the catch and flipped the blade through the air again seemed to disturb the swordswoman for some reason as she sat down. Zazie seemed to be very much enjoying the audience, however.

The train eventually pulled in to a stop in Kyoto and they began a group tour, stopping by an old stage, a pair of rocks promoting 'success in love' where they noted another unexpected bout of frogs as the Class Rep fell into a pit trap with them, and the Otowa waterfall, where someone had rigged up a large barrel of strong sake to the water and the end result was a pile of girls smashed out of their minds.

It was almost like someone had been specifically targeting their class throughout the day. But what kind of imbecile would do something like that? Ranma chuckled at the idea as she slid open the door to the Inn baths, met with the image of Setsuna violently choking and molesting a crying Negi. She took a moment to weigh the disgust with the image against the fact that Negi almost certainly deserved whatever was in store for him.

"Ah... sorry. I'll come back later. You two have fun!" She said, winking as she slid the door shut.

"Awawawa!?"

"W-wait! You have this all wrong!" Setsuna insisted, as Ranma began getting dressed and Asuna and Konoka entered the changing room. "I was just-!"

And then the molestation monkeys attacked. Her only disappointment with _that_ situation, aside from the obvious, was that when she killed them, instead of a satisfying 'splut' of gore, all she got was crumpled paper. Seriously, what the hell?

xxx

She didn't know much of what was going on, but it seemed that someone _was_ targeting either 3A as a whole, or one particular member. And so she'd decided to spy on the brat-mage, since he was most likely the most involved in this. And once more, the decision was correct.

Magic Associations, huh? She hadn't heard enough to understand _why_ such a group would be targetting them, but she did hear enough to convince her that it would be a good idea to pass on a little sleep and split up with Zero to patrol the hallways, just in case of....

A giant monkey running past with Konoe in its arms?

The surprise at such a weird sight left her boggled for just long enough for it to get past her. What was _wrong_ with these crazy mages!? She shook her head to clear it and took off after the apparition.

She could probably take it out at any time, but there was Konoe's safety to consider. She'd have to wait for the thing to come to a full stop before attacking. The closest thing to that was when it paused for a moment as Negi confronted it, then left behind a horde of little monkeys to keep him occupied.

The monkey slowed down as it entered the station, Ranma hot on its heels, and Negi, Asuna, and Setsuna just behind her.

"Charms of Warding!" Setsuna noted. "Ordinary people shouldn't even be able to get close."

"The Ice Queen's anything but 'ordinary'." Asuna noted dryly.

The chase led through a train, and the monkey... no, now that she'd gotten this close, it was obvious that it was a person wearing a monkey suit, for whatever _stupid_ reason.... threw a paper ward back behind herself as she slammed the door she'd passed through shut, and it released enough water to fill the entire carriage and then some.

Her mistake, not that she'd quite realized it yet, was stopping by the glass window to gloat back at them, when Ranma had managed to catch hold of the door handle. She leered at the kidnapper, who went white and turned to continue running as she drew back her other hand and smashed through the glass, unconcerned with the minor lacerations as the thousands of gallons of water geysered through the hole, carrying her with it and flooding the next carriage as well before the monkey girl could make good her escaped. Waterlogged, they were spewed out of the doors of the train.

"Not... not bad." The monkey woman admitted. "But... you aren't getting Konoka Ojou-sama away from me!"

The chase continued, to a long set of stairs out of the building where the kidnapper had stopped. There definitely had to be a plan of some sort involved, then.

"You've done well to follow me this far." She admitted. "Now... Third Charm, Dai Character! Burn!"

Ranma had just enough time to look down to where the paper ward had been flung to stick on her shirt and start to reach for it to tear it off before a world of flame erupted, and she couldn't help but scream.

"Wh-? No! Ranma-san! Frans Saltatio Bleuerea!"

The slamming wall of wind did away with the fire, but Ranma was still heavily singed as she dropped to her knees, clothes coming slowly off in black flakes and gasping for breath.

"Hate... Magic... _So_ much..." She panted, collapsing completely and rolling painfully down the stairs.

The magical duel began in earnest, then, as Ranma rolled to a stop and gathered her bearings, watching Asuna pull the magic weapon Eva had mentioned, _a giant fan_, and the kidnapper lady summon a pair of giant plush animals. It seemed like between them, Kagurazaka and Sakurazaki had the offense bit pretty much covered. Time to play ninja.

With a grunt of pained effort, Ranma rose to her feet, doing her best to sink into the shadows as she made her slow way around the edge of the battlefield, thanking the opponent for her obtuseness in counting her out immediately, just because she'd been a bit immolated in a horrible fiery inferno of agony. She'd learn better, soon.

Asuna dealt with the monkey unreasonably quickly, and Setsuna left the bear for her as she attempted a straightforward assault to retrieve Konoka. She was interrupted in that endeavor by the arrival of another swordswoman.

The enemies seemed to be crawling out of the woodworks like insects, Ranma noted. The tide had turned, with Sakurazaki not quite matching up to the faster opponent with shorter blades, and Kagurazaka being slowly overwhelmed by the tide of molestation monkeys the bear was releasing.

Negi tried a magical attack on the kidnapper, who used Konoe as a shield, forcing him to cancel the attack at the last moment.

"Fufu... that type? A weakling who backs off if the hostage looks like they'll be even slightly injured? That's great! I'll just keep using her this way, then!" The kidnapper declared, flipping her back up over her shoulder and ignoring the way the loose robe was now giving the whole room an excellent view of Konoe's unmentionables.

"What are you going to do with Konoka!?" Asuna barked from where she'd been trapped in the bear's claws.

"Hm? Interesting question. I suppose we'll use spells and drugs to brainwash her, turning her into no more than a puppet obedient to our every whim. It'll be fun! Ehehe..." A more than slightly perverted leer fell over the kidnappers face. "Ojou-sama's become very pale and cute down here, hasn't she?"

_**"Is that so?"**_ Ranma's menacing voice came from behind the kidnapper as everything exploded with rage, the other girls finishing their opponents with no real effort in the united desire to _hurt her_, and Negi chipped in with his disarming, disrobing spell.

Ranma kicked at the naked kidnappers knees, forcing her to them as she caught Konoe and clamped her other hand onto the top of the mage's skull, sparking in the dim light with blue fire.

"You see, I _was_ just going to hurt you a lot, then set you on fire and leave what happened afterwards to chance. Eye for an eye plus interest thing. Now? Goodbye, miss kidnapper."

Ranma's hand clenched into a fist, without moving from where she'd set her palm. For just a moment, it looked like it was finished... and then the illusion failed and she opened her hand to reveal a crushed paperdoll in it, smeared ink shaping what might have once been a name.

"Tch.... got away?" Ranma grumbled, glancing aside where the sword-girl had clambered atop a sprinting monkey to escape. "Next time, then. Don't think you can escape me forever, miss kidnapper."

She pressed Konoe off on Sakurazaki, mumbling something about 'tending wounds' as she staggered off in the general direction of the Inn, ignoring how her own clothes were nearly gone by now and how the world was swimming before her eyes. She made it perhaps ten yards before dropping to her knees and coughing up a handful of mingled blood and soot.

"Why..." She mumbled, realizing that she was starting to lose consciousness. "Every battle with magic involved... why does it end this way? I need... more..."

She collapsed, the world going dark.

xxx

She woke up that morning wrapped in bandages, Zazie and Zero staring down at her.

"Master got burned." The puppet chided. "Should have taken me along!"

Zazie nodded, but continued to stare impassively down at her.

"Should I point out that you're made of _wood_ now, or just let you work that out on your own?" Ranma grumbled, sitting up and unwinding the bandages to reveal new, pink skin underneath. "Good thing I hadn't used too much of my reserves, I guess... looks like I was burned worse than it seemed."

"It looked like the skin was dripping off your flesh when you got back, Master!" Zero said, accompanied by a near inaudible murmur of 'candle wax...', the puppet's worry undisguised. "Why'd you go off without backup, huh?"

"No time to stop and think. I just went with the flow."

"Well _don't_ next time! What do you think happens to me if Master dies? I go back in the box! So next time..."

"Alright, I get it. Next time, I pick up backup first."

Zazie watched the animated exchange in silent curiosity as the redhead was harangued by her doll.

"Ah... and the bandages. I suppose Sakurazaki.... or do I have you to thank for that, Rainyday?" Zazie nodded silently, pointing at herself. "Huh. I owe you a favor, then. Don't take too long to collect, now. For that matter, where did Sakurazaki get to?"

"Setsuna said- 'Be sure to let her know that I'll be spending the day watching out for Ojou-sama, alright?'." Zazie replied, near inaudible and monotone until she reached the message, which was an almost perfect voice impression of Setsuna, complete with facial expressions and gestures. It was actually a little creepy.

"Huh. Alright then. I'll just go down to breakfast, and-"

She was interrupted as Zazie pushed her gently but forcefully back down onto the mat.

"Setsuna said- 'She seems to be accessing her ki to accellerate her healing to a prodigous rate. Even so, she needs to rest. Under no circumstances should she get up until she's completely healed, don't let her go down for breakfast, either.'." She mimicked again.

"But I _am_... you're interpreting those as two seperate orders." She realized. "'Don't let me up until I'm healed' and 'don't let me go down for breakfast'."

Zazie nodded silently.

"Huh. But since I _am_ healed, how do you intend to stop me from going to eat?" Ranma wondered.

Rather than answer verbally, Zazie sat down on Ranma's stomach, pinning her in place with her legs and crooking a finger towards Zero, who had left at some point and was toddling back in with a large tray of food over her head.

"... I suppose I can't argue with that." Ranma decided, before shifting to a teasing tone. "Of course, I'd say that this was calling in the favor I owe you, but seriously, being fed breakfast in bed by a cute girl while she straddles me? I'd end up owing you a second favor instead, and probably of more value than the first."

She was delighted at the startled blush that flickered across Zazie's previously completely impassive face, letting her know that she'd hit just the right buttons as she relaxed with a smug smirk.

xxx

A.N.

Alrighty. One point I should probably make clear, that I meant to cover in last chapter's notes but forgot. Ranma hasn't been acting quite completely rational all the time, saying one thing and doing another, or contradicting her own beliefs and previous actions without a thought. That's because she _isn't_. This Ranma is what you might call 'a career patient' if you're a psychiatrist, or 'completely brainscrewed' if you aren't. Daddy issues, magic issues, gender issues from the curse, personality disorders, basically she's pretty much a headcase. She's already admitted to the magic issues, and she has a _lot_ more. The crazy comes and goes though. Sometimes, she's all but harmless (for a given value of 'all but'), and sometimes its more 'good morn-ohgodshehasaspork_whogaveheraNOOO_'.

She kept it just about completely under wraps before, but it's starting to work its way out now, and depending on what I feel like doing it'll probably get worse.

Other stuff... Fran and Veronica from Franken Fran. Google it. I, personally, thought it was funny as hell, but some might find it of a more aghastly horrifying nature. Seras is Seras Tuko, of Guardian fame, if you haven't read it then you are a bad person and you should feel bad. Go do so right now. Dr. Deth, same, and Dr. Doom I just made up because the name fit. You'll probably never see him again.

Tidbit I forgot to answer: Saotome Haruna is of no relation to Saotome Ranma. None. Probably.

Anyway, the next chapter is going to contain that kissing game, AKA 'Ranma's _living hell_'. Remember, group six contains three people, and Setsuna will be doing the same as she does in canon.


	4. Chapter 4

"Already healed?" Setsuna mumbled as she caught sight of Ranma, walking the street in casual clothes alongside Zazie. "So fast... Even for the most efficient of self-healing techniques, I hadn't expected her to get up at all today. Was she not injured as badly as it seemed...? No... But then..."

She shook her head softly. It was obvious that the redhead had an enormous wellspring of ki, unless her self-healing techniques were far, far above anything the shinmeiryuu had available to them. But increasing the rate of healing by forcing more ki into it, and unconsciously at that? It was a fearsome ability, though it would certainly have its drawbacks... it would take many times as long as it normally did for Ranma's ki reserves to replace the amount that had been used for healing. Despite that skin was the easiest thing to heal, normally, she'd had to heal _all_ of it, and that on top of whatever else she'd done last night that needed healing... actually, continuing to fight in such a condition had probably done more damage to the girl than just being burned had, she'd been a fool not to lie still and let the uninjured combatants take care of things..

And yet, after taking such debilitating injuries only the night before, here she was walking around with no more than what might be mistaken for a few patches of sunburn to show for it. If she didn't know better, she'd have suspected some supernatural power, such as near-instant vampiric regeneration, to be at play rather than martial techniques. And throughout classes... those with significant martial training of their own had been able to tell that she'd been a fighter of some sort, but she'd never _hinted_ that she'd been even close to this sort of level, or gone out to exterminate monsters, or even sought one of the other fighters in the class for sparring matches, so they had always assumed that she...

"Secchan.... we're going! Are you just going to stand there all day?"

Setsuna started, jerked from her mental evaluation to mutter a quick 'Yes, Ojou-sama', then turned her gaze back to see that the redhead had already wandered off, Zazie with her, and apparently neither of them had seen the swordswoman. Even as she pushed the majority of the thoughts out of her head, one niggling question remained.

Just what kind of person _was_ Ranma, after all?

xxx

Mahoranma

xxx

"You know, you don't have to follow me around, Rainyday."

"Shizuna-sensei said- 'Please remain with your groups at all times during your free day.'." Zazie chided softly.

"Ah... your memory is really great, Rainyday. That's a little irritating, actually..." Ranma mumbled. "Whatever then, do what you want. Just keep out of the way when we find the bad part of town."

Zazie didn't say anything, but the odd tilt to her head clearly said 'And... why are we going there?'.

"Bad part... that's where the street scum are!" Zero noted happily. "We gonna pick a fight, Master?"

"Not at all. We're just taking a walk. If someone picks a fight with _us_... well, that's just self defense, isn't it? A small, but legally very important difference. Also, try not to kill anyone Zero.... that's a headache I don't need, to be labeled as some random serial murderer. If we find a fight, you can hurt them all you want, but nothing they might die of."

"Will do, Master!"

Zazie sighed deeply, but didn't actually so much as glance longingly away as they entered the Nara slums. It wasn't long before a curious crowd of street-punks gathered, encircling them.

"Hehehehe... whadda we have here? Lost little girlies?"

"Oh? Pardon me, sir, we're merely here to see the sights. If you would be so good as to let my friend and I through, I would be much obliged." Ranma said sweetly, the very image of a lost, innocent young waif, dolly clutched loosely in her arms, staring wide-eyed at the group of men.

More than a few had nosebleeds at the sudden overload of cuteness. It had been a calculated gamble, as the little act had ended up both attracting more opponents and driving them off in the past. Fortunately for her purposes, this particular gang of street toughs was apparently more degenerate than most.

"Hehehe... Just let you through?"

"Can't do that, little missy..."

"Don't you know, these streets are _dangerous_."

"All kinds of... heheh... shady characters about."

"All sorts of... _nasty_ things could happen to you."

"We'd be more than happy to lead you out."

"More than happy!"

"But first.... you gotta pay the _toll_."

"Can't do something for nothing."

"And if you ain't got enough for all of us..."

"There's probably _some_ way you can pay..."

Zazie looked around at the men. There were... at least twenty, by her count. All working each other further and further up with their talk, a couple drooling, and a few tending to nosebleeds or leering. She settled back, watching patiently to see the show.

"Ah! Oh dear..." Ranma fretted, wringing her hands, the very picture of a naive, waifish maiden on her first trip out into the real world. "You... you would truly use violence upon me?"

"Not if we don't have to, Jou-chan."

"Just make sure to keep your big brothers happy... _Really_ happy, now..."

"Heh." Ranma let the act drop entirely, posture shifting and eyes seeming to flash blue with a cold, hungry inner fire. "That's _great_. By your own admission, then, you intend to bring harm against me, and so anything I do will be classified as 'self-defense'." She purred, seeming too ooze a feral anticipation with every word.

"Hey... what?" The suddenly uncertain apparent leader got out, as Ranma gently tossed Zero. In mid-arc, both of the duet blurred into motion.

The thugs fell in waves before they even truly realized what was going on, either being knocked unconscious and dropping like rocks, or being repeatedly stabbed by a cackling _toy_ and fleeing, bleeding, scared, and humiliated.

The last punk dropped and Ranma came to a stop, stretching idly.

"Whew. I enjoyed that... probably a lot more than I should have." She said, happy that her recent unfortunate string of unfortunate events seemed restricted to magical battles only.

And then she noted a sudden dull clapping from nearby. Turning, she noted the man in the tacky pinstripe suit that had just stepped out of the building.

"Very good!" He lauded. "As is to expected of the infamous 'Battle Scientist', I suppose. I didn't particularly think there was much chance of this trash's victory to begin with, however. You look a little surprised. Did you think there would be no note taken of your exploits, even when broadcast on live television? Of course... the unwashed masses were swift to dismiss it as 'obviously' being an unusual commercial for some upcoming movie or another, with CG effects." He chuckled. "And the government is taking no action to disprove that theory, instead quietly sweeping the whole messy business under the rugs, privately arranging with news stations _not_ to make stories about the incident, or replay the footage, in the hopes that the problem will just be forgotten. Yes, you would likely have gotten away with it entirely, as for the most part everyone who watched it was jaundiced and cynical enough to dismiss it as fantasy once what was being shown left the tight, narrow box that encompassed their view of 'reality'."

The suited man shrugged, waving an arm to emphasize the point and Ranma caught a hint of tattoo at his wrist. Yakuza?

"Of course... I had personal reasons to not doubt what I had seen. Alas... my poor, dear, sociopathic and somewhat retarded uncle. I did try to warn him to choose a wiser target, but oh no, he insisted that he knew best. Hold such a gathering hostage, 'just eggheads' indeed... I'm sure that your little mini-death-bot, or whatever it is, came as quite the surprise for the fool. Nevertheless... he was family, and so there is a matter of restitution to be dealt with. This isn't a comic book or video game, little girl. You've made deadly enemies, without a thought, and now you pay for it."

He snapped his fingers, and Ranma's eyebrow arched as, behind him, what seemed like every window on the street was occupied by a pair of armed Yak goons. Ten, twenty, fifty... more... huh. They had the high ground, and were behind walls and spread out significantly as well, and her ki reserves were at perhaps a quarter of normal, after last night's rush healing. On top of that, she'd noted while fighting the thugs that her freshly-healed skin felt just the slightest bit too tight, still, and limited her usual range of motion a little, adding insult to injury. This wasn't good. Against a smaller group of gunmen, in close quarters, that had been one thing. This, however... the situation was entirely different. She calmly picked up Zero and tossed her to Rainyday, then settled into a stance, preparing for her next move.

"It was simple good fortune, that you happened to be in Nara at the same time I was here on business. Further, that we even crossed paths. The good fortune being on my part, of course. Your own luck seems to have run out, little Red. Fire."

She'd moved into a shundo before he'd finished the last word, not to the attack, but a full retreat, snapping up Zazie and darting down an alley, from there triangle jumping between the walls to reach the top of the building, darting to an area where they wouldn't be able to see to direct bullets towards from their current position.

"Heh. Looks like I've drug you into a bit of a mess, Rainyday. My bad. But don't worry. This is my problem, and I won't let you get hurt by it. On foot, even by car, they can't possibly catch up to..."

Ranma trailed off as she noted a strange, loud sound from directly behind her, and the subtle widening of Zazie's eyes.

"If I turn around... I'm not at all going to like what I see, am I." She deadpanned, and was answered with a slow, negative headshake. She turned anyway.

"What the CRAP!? Helicopter!? Where did it _come_ from? That's not fair!" She yelled, pointing at the offending flying machine, from which the Yakuza boss was now dangling by a rope. She considered if she could get close to the helicopter while still protecting Zazie, wasn't happy with the long odds, then quickly reviewed all her distance attacks... aside from the Yama, that was none, nada, and zip, and realized exactly what she was moving on to after she'd completed void shundo.

"Man... if I was alone, this wouldn't even be a problem, but I've got Rainyday to think of.... It's like an escort mission from a video game. I _hate _those levels... _every_ time you get nearly to the end, _your vip jumps into the crossfire_." She rambled, wildeyed and trying to work out how the hell this had just happened. "Rainyday! Don't you _dare_ jump into the path of bullets, or I will _hurt you_."

"Insane prattle will not help you here, battle bitch!" The Yak snarled, revealing an automatic rifle in the hand he'd been holding behind his back. "Die!"

Ranma snatched up Zazie and dove over the side of the building, where a dozen men in suits were waiting, faces up and guns already leveled."

"FF-!"

Ranma pushed off the wall into a shundo to the other side in a desperate move to dodge the hailstorm of hot lead, using speed to her advantage to get some more distance as she ran down the wall, chips of brick and mortar flying into the air just a step behind her as the yaks kept their weapons pointed her way.

She broke out of the alley and into another street full of yakuza waiting for her, and moved into another shundo to dodge the instant death.

"What the crap is wrong here! Did Nara just get voted 'organized crimesville' when I wasn't looking, or something? Dammit, _more_-?"

The helicopter revealed itself at the end of the street, and Ranma quickly hurled herself through a large window, into a fine dining establishment with many _very_ surprised patrons. Not sparing a moment, she darted through the room and into the kitches, making a hasty retreat through the back door and into another patch of alleyways, greeted by a funky smell and _more yakuza_, though in this case there was only the very surprised pair.

She quickly hurled one into the other, then continued on at top speed, hoping that this meant her opponent was running out of warm bodies to throw at the problem.

The two quickly stood up and followed her around the corner as fast they could.

"Where she go!?" Asked one of the goons.

The other answered his grammatically challenged partner by quickly pointing out a flash of red pigtail disappearing down another alleyway and pulled out a small handheld radio and barked his position into it, and a curt 'pursuing target'.

Ranma remained just one step ahead for almost all the rest of the chase, knocking down trashcans and other obstacles to trip up pursuit, taking circuitous routes, going up to the rooftops and back down to the streets a couple more times until finally being pinned in a dead end alley, on her knees from exhaustion and alone, with the helicopter hovering overhead and the other end of the alley blocked off by Yakuza.

"Your friend?" The head yak wondered, dropping down from the rope.

"Split up." Ranma answered, a hollow, dead tone to her voice. "This was none of her concern to begin with. The doll will protect her."

"I see. I suppose you're correct. I would have eliminated both the girl and your doll-thing as well, but simply your own end will satisfy me. Do you have any last words, 'Battle Scientist'?"

Ranma chuckled darkly and stood.

"Everything... according to plan." She said, voice twisting to a harsh, grating noise as she turned, revealing an intricate oval mask where her face should have been, the rest of her body transforming into a tendrilled cloak of darkness, the entire spectre fading away into nothingness as the crime-boss and his men opened fire.

"... I see." The head suit mumbled as the useless waste of ammo came to an end. "It seems my hasty plans underestimated you, little Red. Mad scientist of war, indeed. This round goes to you, then. Next time..."

xxx

Ranma and Zazie's path had diverged from the distraction back near the restaurant, as Ranma had dropped them down an open manhole, fully expecting the gambit to only buy them a minute or two of breathing room at most.

She'd been surprised almost out of her skin when two masked beings had coagulated out of the shadows, one taking her form and floating up through the roof as Zazie pointed to it with a soft 'distract', and the other seeming to be scouting ahead, having left behind a floating will-o-wisp to guide them through the sewer mains.

Ranm would have put Rainyday down then, being for the most part out of danger, but contrary to the manga interpretation of ridiculously spacious tunnels with tiny streams of unidentified stuff between neat and clean catwalks, there would probably be enough room for them to walk side by side... but then they would _both_ be up to their ankles in filth. Just her was bad enough, and she was uncomfortably aware of every squelch and that her shoes were going to have to be replaced after this little trek.

"So... about creepy and freaky..." She wondered aloud. "Just what are...? Some kind of magic?" She finished with an unmistakeable tone of disgust.

"Not magic." Zazie replied immediately, sensing that to hesitate in how to explain it would be somehow unwise. "Nothing within your realm of experience. There are more facets to the gemstone of existence than you realize. You are familiar with only two of the many powers binding reality's weave."

"So... not magic, then." Ranma said, latching on to what she interpreted as the only important bit of the answer. "In that case, it doesn't matter too much."

They were silent for the next few minutes, before Zazie spoke again.

"They are... dreams, of a sort, beings of pure imagination, given form and substance."

"Dreams... huh. They looked more like nightmares."

"Not all dreams are pleasant." Zazie agreed quietly.

Her eyes flashed red for just a moment, but just long enough that had Ranma not already been jaded to the unusual, it would have been really creepy.

"The distraction has been discovered."

"It shouldn't be a problem." Ranma decided. "There's probably no way they could track us down at this point, we've been walking for a while. Have to be out of Nara by now. Still... can't imagine that the day would turn so bad. Looks like I've ruined your free time, Rainyday. I'll have to make that up to you, somehow."

"Quit being so mushy, Master!" Zero declared, apparently having had quite enough. "If you want her, then kiss her and get to it already, or knock it off!"

"Aheh... that's not quite..." Ranma mumbled, another startled blush crossing Zazie's face. "Anyway, the current surroundings are... I'll lay off, okay? Geeze. Grumpy muppet."

It was a while yet after that when they finally clambered out of the sewers, and when they returned to the inn, Ranma was wearing new shoes and had blown the rest of her spending money treating Zazie to things to make up for the first part of the day.

xxx

Ranma was interesting. Zazie had spent the vast majority of the day contemplating the redhead, and the many faces she wore.

She had played many parts in the day, as though a consummate actor. The bored young woman. The naive waif. The irrepressable flirt, when teasing or when going out of her way to con freebies out of vendors. The foulmouthed protector, insistent on not getting her caught up in Ranma's private troubles. The face Zazie was most familiar with, the chilly, brooding ice queen, mind on studies alone, with no interest in, or care for, the people around her. More faces still.

If Ranma had ever thought to join the theatre club, she would have been a hit.

And yet, it didn't seem to be anything so simple as mere acting. Whenever Ranma took on a role, she fell completely into it, to the point that she seemed to forget she had ever been anything else. It was almost uncanny, if Zazie had any right to use such words. Like she was a slightly different person, or more accurately, that her personality shifted, whenever she changed roles. She wasn't acting different... she simply _was_ different, albeit for the most part in very subtle ways.

And then, after sundown and after Nita-sensei had leveled dire threats against anyone caught out of their rooms, Asakura had sprung the idea of a little game, and Zazie found herself carefully noting the new face Ranma had revealed. A maelstrom of swirling anger and disgust.

xxx

"No way in hell!" Ranma said, shooting down the idea with what was, to most of the class, unusually foul language from her.

"Keep it down! You'll get Demon Nita's attention!" Asakura shushed. "Anyway, the rules are simple. Every group will choose two representatives. All they have to do is sneak through the building without being caught by Nita-sensei or any of the other groups, and steal a kiss from Negi-sensei, who's somewhere in the building."

"Like I already _said_, I'm wholeheartedly and completely against this idea."

"You can sabotage the other teams, but the only legal weapons are pillows, and there are prizes for those who succeed in this game!" Asakura continued, wholeheartedly and completely ignoring and overriding Ranma's objections. "Further, if Nita-sensei catches you, you can't tell him about the game! You'll just have to suck it up and deal with the punishment."

"I've half a mind to track the man down _right now_ and...." Ranma trailed to a halt as twenty five sets of eyes locked on to her and she belatedly realized just how not-fun things could become if she made enemies of, essentially, everyone else in the class in one go. "Tch. Fine. I won't carry tales to Nita, alright? I _still_ don't like this game. You're forgetting that there are only three people in group six to begin with, and Sakurazaki's off taking a late bath or something."

"Let's hold a vote then." Asakura magnanimously offered. "All in favor?"

Aside from one or two other dissenters, who simply weren't keen on the idea of squatting in the lobby all night, the majority was clear.

"Hate you all..." Ranma grumbled balefully.

"The game starts at eleven. Be sure you all have your two representatives picked out by ten thirty, 'kay?"

Ranma spent all the time remaining to her in the effort of hunting down Sakurazaki, so that she could pair _her_ up with Rainyday for this... travesty, was the only word that seemed to properly describe her feelings on the matter. And it wasn't that she didn't particularly like the girls either... she liked both of them well enough, for only being vague acquaintances for most of their time together, but in this situation it was really better for them to take the blow than her.

xxx

Of course, Sakurazaki was nowhere to be found. Either she was moving around the Inn enough, and at the right times, that Ranma had missed her wherever she went, or she had skipped out to check out Kyoto by late night. Either way, she now owed the girl a kidney-punch when she least expected it.

"All right, The War of Lips begins. The teams are, for group one, the Twins! Fuuka is going to go for it, while Fumika seems more worried about getting caught. For group two, Baka Rangers Yellow and Blue! Ku Fei and Kaede seem to be just going along for the ride, really. Group Three, Class Rep Ayaka and Chisame! Chisame doesn't look happy to be a representative, but our Class Rep sure looks excited. Group Four, Yuuna and Makie-chan are going for the gold, and it looks like they're the only team with both members focused entirely on claiming sensei's lips. Group Five, Yue and Nodoka, who apparently confessed to our Negi-sensei today! Yue just seems to be in this as backup for her fellow library club member. And Group Six, by default it seems, Zazie and the Ice Queen! Neither of which look too enthused about our little game, and Ranma seems really mad for some reason, but they're playing along, for the most part, even if they have no intention of winning."

In the 'Broadcast room', Kamo slowly toppled over, drawing a curious glance from Asakura as she wound down the announcement, trying to draw in every gambler she could.

"So... what's the problem?" She asked, after shutting off the mike.

Kamo, who'd appeared to have gone into an epileptic fit on the counter, quickly sprang back up.

"HER!" He declared, gesturing wildly at Ranma's picture. "Her, her, her.... W-why is _she_... How did... this is horrible! We have to call the whole thing off!"

"Hey, hey! Calm down. Now gimme the whole story, 'Kay?"

"It's... it's too long to tell in one go. That one... she _hates_ aniki like you would not believe! If she's joined up with this, then I'm sure she's plotting something nasty... Aniki's in danger!"

"Ehehe... overreacting much? So I guess I should have given her the option to bow out, then...?"

"Wha-?"

Kamo carefully calmed himself, and got a brief explanation of what Asakura had done while he was not paying attention.

"Okay... in that case, it's not so bad, because that means she's not planned anything. But it's not good either, because now she's _pissed_. With luck, she won't try to take advantage of the situation..." Kamo mumbled to himself, Asakura shrugging off his complaints, not convinced that a classmate could really be the way the ermine was describing. On her computer, a little blip showed, indicating that someone was watching TV in Negi's room.

"Game Start!" She chirped happily into the mike.

xxx

"Man... what a drag." Ranma grumbled, hefting the pillows she'd been assigned. "Not interested in doing the face-sucking thing with males in general, much less the pint-sized magic teacher."

She ignored that she'd effectively blown Negi's secret as Zazie cocked her head because, really, she couldn't care less, and she hadn't really reacted to the magic-bomb being dropped on her earlier.

"So. Want to just hunt wander around and not really do anything, then?"

Zazie considered the plan and then shrugged. She wasn't particularly interested in the game either.

"Ah, nice. Hey Class Rep." Ranma said semi-cheerfully while at the same time blurring an arm into motion, launching one of those pillows over Zazie's shoulder. To her credit, she didn't flinch, instead turning her head to where Ayaka was standing behind her, pillow raised in one hand, and Ranma's bending her neck backwards from where it had impacted, before dropping with a soft 'whumph' to the ground.

"You know, if you wanna win, then a good strategy would be to target the other players who want to win... _not_ the ones with no interest whatsoever." Ranma chided

"Duly noted." Ayaka grumbled.

In spite of that agreement, Ranma kept a careful eye on the Class Rep until she'd left the room, Hasegawa trailing behind dourly. Only then did she wander over to pick up the hurled pillow.

There were a couple more childish sneak attacks that Ranma deflected, and one close call with Nita, as they wandered aimlessly through the Inn, eventually finding themselves back where they'd started, only with the rest of the players already there, surrounding not just Negi, but apparently his three identical twins as well. Ranma twitched.

"Did... did I die and go to hell...?" She mumbled, mind blanking at the sight. If she stopped to think about it, it would become immediately obvious that magic, of some sort, was to blame, but the sight of the cloned mage was just so inherently wrong that...

Her vision cleared shortly afterwards, as they started getting kissed, and exploding. It was an oddly catarthic sight. One moment, the glaze-eyed punks were getting smooched, and then came the boom. Over and over, until the only one left was the one that Miyazaki had been tripped into kissing. He didn't explode.

Rather than the rational conclusion that this, then, was the real Negi, Ranma, still confused and disoriented from the last couple of minutes, decided that there had been an error with the kiss somehow, and picked up the equally dazed, and partially smoldering, Class rep and hurled her directly at the shrimp.

"Explode this time!" She barked, as Miyazaki pulled away, blushing, to be replaced by a much-faster approach from Ayaka. Liplock was made a second time, the Class rep snapping out of her daze to freeze up in paralysis for several long moments. Apparently, despite fawning over the younger teacher, she'd never seriously considered that she might actually get to this point, and so had made no.... no, Ranma's thought processes stood corrected. She'd reclaimed control of her faculties, and was now, or so it seemed, doing her best to choke him to death with her tongue.

Ranma heartily approved of that goal, if not the particular means chosen. Even so, she was feeling just a touch foolish, having begun to realize that Negi would probably not be exploding any time in the near future. Also, as he was carrying that funky stick, he was probably the real deal, which was a little conflicting. On the one hand, the Class rep was, like the entirety of the class actually, better than attractive and so getting a kiss from her would typically be considered a 'good thing' for the recipient, and she'd _directly caused_ the little mage to strike lucky in that regard, which almost made her want to go dye her hair black and write depressing poetry. On the other hand, he was starting to turn blue, and his arms were gyrating wildly, which could only lead to her happiness.

Sadly, Ayaka came up for air, allowing Negi to take several deep gasps of breath.

"Oh well. Had to hope." Ranma grumbled, shrugging. "I'll just be content with the others then. Right now, I'm going to get to bed before Nita over there comes to."

Zazie considered the wise plan and quickly followed her when it was revealed that he was, in fact, starting to groan softly and stir.

xxx

Ranma left the next morning with a promise to partially obey the whims of authority by meeting up with 'the group', or rather, Zazie, since Setsuna was going to be off stalking the Konoemon girl again, at the Cinema Town theme park. It was a bit irritating, actually, that the other girl seemed to feel so obligated to keep her following the rules...

"Back in the slums, Master...?" Zero questioned from her perch on Ranma's shoulder.

"Yeah. That guy... he was right. No use crying over spilled milk, and if I had the chance to do it all over I'd only have you hurt that idiot _more_ before he went, but all the same I can't afford an enemy like that running around. If he tracks me to the school? I'm pretty sure 'Excuse me, can I step out of class to go fight the thousand Yakuza gunmen outside to the death' isn't going to fly."

"If they attack the school, you have peewee and his partner, plus Eva and the newbie to fall back on, though." Zero pointed out pragmatically.

"Yeah. But honestly, getting them involved in mundane matters like this? I'd really rather get shot to pieces than ask for magic help, and Eva's useless most of the time."

"She's an aikido grandmaster." Zero stated flatly, simply relaying the information. Ranma blinked.

"What... seriously? Then why... I guess when the whole bridge thing went down she was too busy revelling in the ability to throw glaciers and solid darkness around to think about such normal techniques." she snarked.

"Could be. From one point of view, she's still ten, and has always been prone to showboating."

"Tch. Grandstanding with magic...great. Though if she really _is_ any good with more physical arts, I might drop by her place for a while." Ranma mused, Zero's creepy grin widening at the unintended double entrende.

The cocking of automatic weapons around them brought the quiet conversation to a full halt.

"So... once escaping me, not even a full day passes before the battle scientist turns and runs deliberately and headlong into the jaws of death. Should I be pleased, or disappointed, I wonder?" The Yakuza boss mused lightly, a katana sheathed casually at his side, clashing greatly with his suit and the handgun he was carrying.

"Ah... I couldn't leave such a fun game for long, once begun!" Ranma shot back, Zero readying her knives. "I should have you know, I fight unarmed for a reason. It's much easier to cut someone until they bleed out, or use a force multiplier like a hammer, or even a big stick, and even a random six-year-old can shoot someone with a gun, yeah... but it's more fun to beat people with your bare fists. On top of that, I don't usually make a point of killing my enemies. It's _much_ harder to just knock out a bunch of people than it is to kill them, and so I have more fun that way. You could call me something of an adrenaline junkie, I guess. Little Zero has no such restraints."

"I just like to see the beautiful spray of blood." The doll confirmed happily.

"Oh? How quaint. Self-imposed rules for your own amusement. If we're done with the self-aggrandizement and boasts, however, let's get down to business, I do have other plans today."

He snapped his fingers, and the battle began in earnest. Of course, this time it was swiftly revealed that Ranma held the advantage. She wasn't full on ki yet, of course, but was at a much higher level than she'd been the day before, she had slept reasonably well last night, minus the horrible kiss game idea anyway, _hadn't_ gone through a serious battle the night before and so was pretty much at one hundred percent in every respect other than ki reserves, and , probably most importantly, she wasn't forced into a retreating battle due to the need to protect Zazie... although she still hadn't confirmed whether or not she could have taken care of herself the other day. She made a note of asking about the use and limitations of those shadow things eventually.

All told, the yaks were dropping like flies, and Zero was a little hard pressed to keep up the rate of battle. It was wonderful to the psychotic little horror, who was happily giggling as she cleaved limbs apart and otherwise cheerfully maimed the thugs in suits before finishing them off.

The Yakuza, a bit slow to catch on that just escalating their force wasn't going to be nearly enough, began showing up at the windows of the surrounding buildings again. One of them was _very_ surprised when Ranma also appeared in their window, grinning widely as a fist rapidly seemed to grow far larger than it should have been able to.

Rather than run around the hallways of the buildings to flush out the rest of the interior criminals, Ranma made a point of smashing through walls, ceilings, and floors at every turn rather than ever using a door, tamping down the weird sense of Deja Vu and very much enjoying the element of surprise. Those mooks foolish enough to still be leaning out the window, trying to find out where she'd gone, tended to suddenly find themselves on an abrupt flight with a very sudden stop.

The distinctive thrumming of helicopter blades indicated that the Yaks had finally pulled out all the stops as she kicked down the door to the roof, greeted there by not one, but _three_ identical choppers with mounted gatling guns. In a video game, she would be looking for a ridiculously convenient rocket launcher right now. Instead, she just threw the broken door at one of them. It almost evaded, but her improvised attack got caught up in the primary rotor, and apparently _something_ went catastrophically wrong because the machine went into a tailspin, crashing down to the street below.

"Note to self." Ranma muttered, leaping to the next roof. "Cross 'destroy a helicopter with a door' off my to-do list."

The other two quickly moved to pursue, opening fire as she zipped from place to place with shundo before apparently hiding behind a wall. Needless to say, she wasn't there when they circled around.

"Where she... no!" The pilot yelled, as Ranma flickered into place _not two feet away_, fist already shooting forward to smash into the bulletproof glass, creating a spiderweb of cracks. He panicked, understandably, and began a series of random maneuvers in an attempt to shake her off. When she grinned and disappeared in a burst of speed, leaving him to realize that he was far too close to the other chopper, and moving far too fast, it was alread far too late.

"Two for one!" Ranma remarked at the pyrotechnics that ensued, then ducked the decapitating blow aimed at her from behind.

"Hey, hey now." She chided. "After all of that... you seriously think that having a sword is going to help you any in this fight?"

"Fool." He scoffed. "This is no simple sword. This is the cursed blade, Muramasa. With every life it cuts short, its powers grow. With it, I am invincible!" He roared, the blade beginning to ooze a sickly purple aura.

Ranma pragmatically kicked the damn thing out of his hands without another word said.

"Wh-what!?" He stuttered in disbelief, staring at his empty hands as the blade stuck into the rooftop nearby, followed up by a knee to the stomach to leave him gasping for breath.

"Moron." Ranma shot right back. "So it's a magic sword. So what? Unless it grants you the ability to _use_ it, you're the same as any other dimwit swinging around a sharp bit of metal you've never touched before in your life."

"This... cannot be..." He croaked out, staggering away, then snatching up the sword again. "Muramasa! Give me power!" He roared, clutching feverishly at it.

"Look, I just said there's nothing doing, didn't I?" Ranma said, as the head Yakuza was once more spectacularly disappointed when nothing much happened.

"I... I see. Accursed blade." He spat. "Very well... Muramasa. In exchange for my victory against this impudent bitch... I offer my own soul!"

Another scornful comment from the peanut gallery was cut off short as, the magic words spoken, results were actually produced. The aura surrounding the blade billowed rapidly outwards, wrapping itself about the man's entire body as he screamed, black lightning crawling over his skin, coalescing at his eyes, clothes warping and twisting, the man's body reshaping itself to suit the sword's whim.

Ranma's mouth worked a couple of times before she grunted at the sight of the apparition.

"Okay, see, _now_ your magic toy is starting to look like an actual threat." She admitted.

Without a word, the puppet of Muramasa's will settled into a perfect Kenjutsu stance.

xxx

A.N. Cliffhanger'd! Because I'm stuck on the epic Muramasa v Ranma fight scene. I have _one_ way this could play out already worked out... but you would hate me _so much_ if I actually went and did it.

It boils down to the two liner- 'I forfeit.' _Muramasa collapses like a puppet with strings cut_. 'Wait, seriously, it was that easy?'

May or may not actually finish it that way, but gotta work out a decent fight scene first. Also, yes, against normal peoples Ranma is Uber. I maintain that at this point any of the heavy hitters of Negima could take out a bunch of armed goons and a trio of attack helicopters, though. If they really wanted to. As you've probably noticed, though, Ranma tends to get the short end of the stick in _magic_ fights. Expect that unfortunate trend to continue.

Ranma: Why do you hate me!?

I tend to hurt the characters I enjoy most. With spikes, glowy red hot stuff, and other instruments of Pain.

Final note, Actions Have Consequences. Ripple/Butterfly effect beginning. Need to look up Ayaka, see if she gets anything decent as a pactio card in that anime, if not then it's time for the good old Artistic License: Make Shit Up no Jutsu. I'm sure I'll figure something out.


	5. Chapter 5

Nodoka had figured out how to work with her magic playing card pretty quickly, having overheard a discussion between Negi and the more in-the-know girls, even if she wasn't exactly thrilled with the nature of the mind-reading diary when she first began playing with it. Ayaka, on the other hand, still had no clue, but made a point of keeping the card close to her person at all times despite that. Apparently, she'd decided to consider it a token of affection as well as a prize, or something.

So when she went to Cinema Town with her group, she kept the card on her person while she changed into unneccessarily fancy clothes and a wig, while Nodoka desperately assisted with Negi's current problem of the werewolf his own age that had shown up riding a giant spider.

xxx

Mahoranma

xxx

Muramasa's puppet tended to move in short, jerky spurts. Despite that, Ranma had noted that its form was all but flawless, it was very fast, when it did move, and it had no qualms with averting an attack from behind by _impaling itself_. She had attempted such an attack several times, simply for the novelty of watching the thing stab itself in an attempt to hurt her.

It was at the same time pitiful and hilarious. Right up until she realized that the puppet wasn't bleeding, meaning either that he'd probably been dead since before the battle began, or that the wounds were closing too fast for any blood to escape. Or both. Effectively, that meant that even if she started serious offensive measures, just attacking the puppet wouldn't do.

In all honesty, the whole glowing eyes and slack features thing should probably have been a tipoff.

Still, it meant that she was fighting the sword itself. How do you fight a sword? The wielder, certainly, she knew a great many ways of battling.... but the sword itself? Did the body carrying it even matter? Maybe if she just disarmed the puppet....

She stepped back a few paces, watching quietly. The sword didn't seem intent on immediately following her, but it gave the sense that if she tried to run, it would. She slowly circled the puppet. It didn't move an iota, but little tests of flinging bits of debris its way confirmed that it could and would parry from just about any direction.

"Wow. Its been a long time since I've seen one of those." Zero remarked admiringly, having made her way up to the roof after finishing with the mop-up below.

"How do I kill it?" Was Ranma's terse response.

"Hm. Two ways. You can just surrender, if whoever that guy was wasn't smart enough to specify that he wanted you dead..."

"Let's keep that for plan B. Or C." Ranma decided, not at all thrilled with the idea.

"'Kay. Other way is you could completely and utterly destroy the body wielding it. I'm not just talking breaking arms or cutting off limbs here either... it'll just get better. There needs to be nothing left but a pile of ash, and since there's a lot of magic going into keeping that corpse mobile, it'll take some burning."

"That sounds... how long will that take?" Ranma wondered.

"Dunno. Somewhere between many hours and a few days, unless you can spontaneously create fire from nothing, because it'll automatically dodge, and you have to keep it pinned down enough to actually set on fire."

"Oh..." Ranma considered that and sighed. "And... there's nothing else? I've kinda got an appointment to keep. Much as I would enjoy doing something like that..."

"Well... got a volcano to lead it to and drop it into? Can you build a frame around it and fill it with cement before it realizes what's happening and jumps out? Do you know where there are military stockpiles nearby, where you can score a flamethrower or two?" Zero asked sarcastically.

"Tch." Ranma grumbled. "I can't believe I'm passing up on a fight like this. Hey... hey, yeah you. The demon-possessed corpse-thing. Looks like there's no way I can both beat you and still have time for the more important stuff I had planned for today, so I guess you win. I forfeit, and stand defeated. Evil contract over?"

There was a long moment where nothing happened, and Ranma considered that her less than heartfelt declaration hadn't been enough, and the fight was about to begin in earnest. Then, with something approximating a drawn out, rattling sigh, the glowy eyes faded away and the puppet collapsed all at once, the sword clattering out of limp fingers and across the roof.

"Well... that was anticlimactic."

Ranma shrugged and, suddenly drawn by curiosity, reached down for the sword... then froze, fingertips scant millimeters away from it. There was... something like a miasma of cruel anticipation lingering in the air. She frowned and steeled herself before lifting the blade.

As expected, she felt the sentient blade attempt to take hold of her mind and twist her into an entity composed of nothing but wrath and hatred and vengeance, to sate its eternal lust for blood.

"Feh. Is that how it is? Hate to say it, Muramasa, but you're kinda late to the party." She snarked as it completely and utterly failed to find anything that hadn't already been used to make a foothold of its own. Without another word, she flung it disdainfully over the edge and into the street.

"Sure that was smart?" Zero questioned. "Swords with brains have certain tendencies of finding new wielders."

"Bah. I see no problem with that and can't envision any future difficulties from it. Besides that, I think I'm late."

xxx

Naturally, it was only minutes after she left that one of the prone figures beneath rose, tearing the Muramasa free from its chest, and stared after her.

After a long, dull moment, it opened its mouth wide, cramming the blade inch by inch down its throat, concealing it within its own flesh. Then, the sword sufficiently hidden, it began a slow, staggering lurch away.

xxx

She wasn't actually late, but Zazie had been waiting for a little while and had already changed into one of the available costumes. Perversely, Ranma'd gone for a cowboy outfit and fedora with leather duster and prop shotgun rather than any of the many, many more traditional looking ones available. Zazie herself didn't particularly seem to care, but the blatant, quickly averted stares from the more 'normally' dressed tourists were fun enough, especially compounded with the doll sitting on her shoulder and waving at people.

And there went another group of students... Ranma blinked, then groaned.

"I'm not seeing things, am I?" She grumbled, rubbing at her nose. "Geeze... can't leave people alone for five freaking minutes."

The group in question was fighting, somewhat ineffectively, against a swarm of cute monster things. That were trying to strip them rather than go for serious blows. On the other hand, there was Sakurazaki, who seemed in a more serious fight on the bridge, with the swordswoman from the last magic incident... and up on top of that building there, the magic brat and Konoe were in a stand off against that mage woman with the fire, and a far more imposing monster than any that had been used before.

"Great... I just got the last tricky patch of skin properly broken in, too." Ranma grumbled, before brightening up a little. "Let's do this a little differently this time... can you fight, Rainyday?"

She was answered with a bland half-shrug, half-nod.

"Whatever, just help me make my dramatic entrance, then."

In a mere moment, they were on the bridge.

"Look at this! Looks like we made it to the party just in time. What does that make us?"

"'Big damn heroes, sir!'" Zazie quote-mimicked without a moments hesitation, prompting Ranma to stumble just a little awkwardly.

"Yes... yes it does.... you know, I think I should remember not to ask you to do things." She finished in a mumble. "Whatever. Either way, your princess needs saving, samurai. Do you have the time to play around, here?" She asked, gesturing vaguely towards the rooftops with the prop gun.

Setsuna realized with a start that this was true, and was off like a shot. Ranma immediately intercepted the attack from behind from the swordswoman, wearing a rather tattered formal gown from a long time back. Come to think of it, she shouldn't have been able to do that so easily, even with ki reinforcement... but the barrel of her shotgun prop was made of metal. Why was it...? She shook the question off, deciding to simply be grateful that it had been.

"Ah ah ah." She chided. "Sorry about this, but it looks like I'll have to be cutting in. May I offer you this dance?"

"Aww... I wanted to fight sempai. But I suppose you'll do, for now."

Zero quickly hopped out of the way as the fight began in earnest, busying herself with the cute monster things instead, backed by Zazie, who's fingernails would for _just_ the slightest of moments shift into six-inch long razor sharp claws as she struck, then shift back before anyone really took note. The little demonlings quickly learned to pick smarter targets and they essentially settled back to watch the show.

The swordswoman seemed to have the advantage at first, with two blades. Ranma, however, was more than happy to counter that advantage by fighting dirty. Hair pulling, techniqes to put the opponent off balance for just a moment, but chained into improbably long combos, going for the face and soft tissues and kicking at joints. She attempted to club the swordswoman in the face with the butt of the rifle at one point, and essentially did everything but snatch dirt off the ground and hurl it into the frustrated swordswoman's eyes.

Then one of those shots to the back of the knees came through, and suddenly the swordswoman was kneeling on the ground, both wrists pinned down by a foot, and the shotgun levelled at her head at point blank range.

"Bye now!" Ranma chirped, and pulled the trigger.

There was an empty click, followed by a long moment of nothing happening on the bridge, itself followed by a disgusted frown from Ranma.

"That's right... it's a _prop_. My bad, I forgot." She admitted with the slightest trace of sheepishness. "Hm... what now? I guess I could just beat you around the head and shoulders with it until you stop moving..."

"We're retreating to Ojou-sama's house!" Setsuna interrupted loudly from wherever she was.

"Eh. Or there's that, I guess. See you around, miss. I'll save a spot on the dance card."

Tsukuyomi stared after the newcomer as the group left.

xxx

Konoe's house was big. No... the word 'big' simply failed to do the place justice. It was ridiculously, ludicrously huge. It wasn't just one large building either, but a temple complex, in effect more of a very small town than a simple building. And, if she'd overheard that brief explanation correctly, it was the headquarters of one of those 'magic associations'.

In other words, _an enemy stronghold_. Konoe herself was apparently unaware of the nature of things, but everyone else was either a mage themself, or had been working with the mages for their whole lives.

Ranma was essentially on a paranoid autopilot after that revelation, only a hairs breath away at any given moment from either freaking out and running away or going into a panic-driven berserk state. Neither would end well.

Fortunately enough, she managed to hold it together for the time being, and had dropped into the interior hot spring/bath with Sakurazaki and Kagurazaka.

It was nice... as long as she filtered out the inane conversation the other two girls were holding, anyway. She closed her eyes, allowing herself to relax in the steaming water.

When she opened them again, the other two had shot out of the bath and were hiding behind a rock, and the door was sliding open, revealing Konoe's father and the mage-brat. She stiffened, then forced herself to relax.

"What are you waiting for?" She wondered, as they had also frozen in the door. "Actually, I've been meaning to have a word with you, Konoe-san. Might as well ask now."

She waved them over and they hesitantly took a place in the baths.

"So... you're some kind of mage, right, Konoe-san? So tell me... what do you know about curses?" She asked, getting right down to business.

The man scratched his nose awkwardly.

"Hm... about curses? Not much, I'm afraid. Few people go into that sort of thing these days, you know... most prefer more direct magics, such as battle and healing. I've come across a few very minor things in my time, of course, and even helped end one curse, but I'm afraid there's not very much I can offer if you want to learn how to use such-"

"No, you've got it wrong." Ranma corrected. "I don't intend any such thing. Even so, any information you can give me would be greatly appreciated."

Ranma could almost see the gears turning in the man's head, and Negi actually looked a little interested in the discussion.

"I see... Well, I do know the very basics, at least. The nature of a curse... firstly, it is almost never beneficial to either the recipient or the caster, and if it turns out to be, then it was only due to a fluke of random chance. A curse is a malign sort of magic from the very beginning, and only cast by those sort of people who are willing to put themselves through a great deal of pain as long as they can drag someone else into suffering alongside them. Aside from that, hm..."

He paused to think and scratch at his head.

"A moment... ah yes, I recall. There are several different layers of curses. Relatively minor things to begin with... these usually have very set limitations and timelines. A family cursed for a set number of generations somehow, or a person cursed in some way that can only be lifted when a specific condition has come to pass. The second is different from, for example, a simple body transformation as once it is cast, the caster themselves cannot cancel the spell, it will remain engraved upon the victims being until the curse is lifted. Second are closer to a middle rank, cursing a family line or group of people in perpetuity until a certain condition has been met. As examples... I'm sure you've come across the fables of the Frog Prince and Sleeping Beauty, haven't you? The first would be an example of the first type of curse, and the latter of the second. They're actually similar, although the seconds effects tend to be much more widespread than the first."

He settled back, frowning, deep in thought.

"Is that all you can tell me, Konoe-san?" Ranma wondered.

"Hm... no. No, there's one more tidbit. The third, most powerful class of curse. Cursing an area, or place, in perpetuity, rather than cursing a specific person or group of people. That's very powerful stuff though. Not one of any such recorded places has ever come to a natural end. The way they work is, rather than focusing on just one person or group of people, the area itself is cursed so that _everyone_ foolish enough to enter it, or fulfil some sort of condition within, will be cursed. Such places are... hazardous, at their most lenient. Unfortunately, some also seem to bear a crude sort of sentience of their own, and seem to hunger to pass along their curses, targeting mages specifically. As such, I'm afraid there are few records of such places remaining, as they tend to be regularly destroyed in the vain hope of preventing foolish, headstrong young mages from being lured in. One fortunate thing about such places, however... unlike the first two, these tend to have no 'hardcoded' means of removing the curse in question, which means that the unfortunate victim cannot simply fulfill that and have done with it, but if a sufficiently powerful mage with enough experience with the workings and removal of curses were to be found and convinced to assist, they should theoretically actually be somewhat more susceptible to a, er, more 'brute-force' approach to solving the matter."

He coughed into his fist.

"Unfortunately, that remains theoretical as such mages tend to be extremely secretive about everything they do, and so there are no records indicating one way or the other. More than that, I estimate only a handful of such mages exist at any given time, and they would all be extremely difficult to track down, more so to convince to render assistance. I'm afraid that really is the limit of my own knowledge." He admitted.

Ranma stared at the ceiling for a long moment, considering the information. Much of it she'd already suspected on her own, although it was good to have it laid clearly out by someone that knew what they were talking about. Bits of it were entirely new to her.

"I see. To be perfectly honest, it's less than I had hoped for... but then, also more than I'd expected. Still, it seems that this long-shot has turned into another dead end. Oh well."

She sighed and rose from the water, disregarding her nudity and the rapidly averted male gazes.

"I'll spend the night, at least. But keep in mind that I hate magic, and don't particularly like anyone that uses or relies on it. I'm cutting you some slack already, for being Konoka's old man, and because you had useful info... but don't think it makes us friends. As far as it goes, all it means is that if we meet up someplace that isn't neutral ground, I won't attack _immediately_."

"Oh... a declaration of hostilities, is it?" Konoe asked, bemusedly.

"You could call it that."

xxx

Ranma hadn't really been able to sleep at all, sharing a room with so many other people, and had instead gotten up to wander around the complex for a while, driven by the paranoid uncertainty that the mages weren't just waiting for a opening, such as her falling asleep, to strike. She wouldn't be entirely helpless in such a case, but just the idea...

She shuddered, glancing between shadows, and not completely able to banish the sense of being watched by hidden eyes.

Zero's presence did little to allieviate that discomfort, as the puppet kept pointing out such little tidbits as 'Lots of owls out tonight. Hey... that's right, I think I heard somewhere that mages can see through the eyes of nearby animals, with the right spell.', or 'I'm sure that the mages aren't at all worried about having someone with a stated enmity to them wandering around their complex after dark. Oh look, a bat!'.

When she returned to the room, it was eerily quiet... she opened the door with a frown. The room inside was dark, and filled with intricately detailed statues of her classmates. Too intricate by far, with their expressions locked into a rictus of surprise and fear, Nodoka's card tugged partway out of her pocket. Ranma stumbled backwards, wide-eyed.

"Treachery?" She whispered.

"Nah, nah." Zero corrected. "This sort of thing is Western magic. Only person here right now that _could_ have done it would be Negi... and the runt's nowhere near that capable, from what I've seen and heard. Nah, this is an attack from outside the complex."

"That's hardly any better!" Ranma shot back, turning and breaking into a run.

The entire compound had gone eerily silent as she was suddenly passing statue after statue. Finally she crossed paths with Negi and Setsuna, speaking with Konoe... who's body was rapidly changing as the grey expanse of stone crept upwards.

"What's going on!?" She snapped, coming to a halt. "There's an attack? Where's the enemy?"

Konoe only had the time to chuckle wryly before the transformation was complete. Her questions remained unanswered after that as a shrill scream rang out from the bathhouse.

"Tch. Enemy?" Ranma grunted, shooting into a chain of instant movements, covering ground far faster than Negi or Setsuna, who were stunned for a moment at her abrupt entrance.

Asuna was lying naked on the ground, spasming slightly. Ranma quickly pushed the implications of that out of her mind as she checked for vitals.

"Alive... good. Where's the enemy, Kagurazaka?"

"B... behind...."

There was a sudden, looming presence...

xxx

When Negi and Setsuna arrived, Ranma had already been soundly beaten, and was lying slumped against the wall, breathing shallowly and covered with sweat. She blacked out as the fight began, and by the time she clawed her way back to consciousness, it had ended, with them having somehow driven away the pale mage.

"Ugh..."

"Ranma? What happened to you? Asuna is fine, but..."

"I was careless." She admitted wryly. "Infiltrated and under assault, and I lost it. In my foolish panic, I lost all sense and..." She grunted with disgust. "He had the advantage from before our fight even began, and never let up on it. Even more, he put me off balance when..."

Without a word, she revealed her off hand, already fully succumbed to the grey taint creeping up her arm.

"Ah! Petrification..." Negi murmured as she lurched to her feet. "I'm sorry, Ranma-san. If we win, we'll immediately dispel-"

"Not good enough!" Ranma snarled, lurching to her feet. "I've got no intention of just sitting out this fight."

"But... the petrification will spread through the flesh it touches, like a poison or virus." Negi pointed out reasonably. "At this point..."

She ignored him, tearing off her shirt to inspect the progression. Nearly up to her elbow by now... she had two, maybe three minutes at most before it passed her shoulder and began moving on to ossify internal organs, leaving them as solid, heavy, and immobile as the limb. With a snarl of disgust, she turned out her pockets, gave up on the effort, and tore apart her shirt to twist and knot into a makeshift rope. Without a word, she looped it around her arm and pulled it tight around the still warm flesh, knotting it with her teeth and free hand.

"What are you doing?" Negi wondered, as Setsuna's eyes widened, having rapidly divined her intent.

"No, don't!" She yelled.

"Shut up!" Ranma countered eloquently, moving her failing arm perpendicular to her body, showing that the petrification had just passed her elbow and was slowly creeping onward. "Zero, do it!"

Without a word, the doll shot into motion, cleaving through flesh and bone alike with a single clean strike. Ranma's arm dropped to the ground with a solid, almost hollow thunk.

She clenched her teeth tightly together as she dropped to her knees, clutching at the stump. Gathering her ki, her hand seemed to be alight with fire for a brief moment, prompting a pained grunt, and then the flow of blood slowed and came to a near stop. She stood again, pale and slightly wobbly.

"What... why did you...?" Negi whispered, horrified at the sight.

"I will not... be useless!" Ranma snarled back. "Just sit tight and allow myself to be turned to stone, trusting that you'll win and turn me back afterwards? Hell no! I'd sooner die right out, and if all I have to do is lose a limb or two on the way...."

"Wait, wait!" Setsuna interjected. "Healing magic... once this is over, we can fix-"

"Hell no!" Ranma spat again. "Allow magic to be used on me, just to fix an arm? I'd die first! There's only _one_ reason I'd consent to having magic used on me, and that's..." She trailed off and shook her head. "That's none of your business. Never mind that, while we're standing here arguing, the enemy is getting away. Let's go!"

Ranma turned and shot out of the room with Zero, quickly adjusting herself to the new weight and balance of her body, without a thought spared towards the discarded stone limb behind her. Somewhat more hesitantly, the others followed.

The fire-witch was the first one they caught up with, leering at them with Konoe bound and secured beside her.

"Ufufufufu... you've caught up. But I see _someone_ got a boo-boo along the way! Mufufufufu...."

"Laugh while you can, hag." Ranma grunted. "I'll be seeing to it that you won't see the sunrise."

"Oh? It seems someone doesn't realize just who holds the advantage here. Ojou-sama has near-boundless magical energies locked up inside her body. If one were to take hold of it and use it as their own... why, I could even do something like _this_!"

A strange, glowing glyph appeared on the ground, followed immediately by another, and another, and... within moments there were too many to count, and figures were slowly fading into view.

"Against an army of one hundred demons... what hope could such as you have remaining? It seems that I'm not the one who won't see another dawn. Bye now!"

The witch snatched Konoka up and retreated, the demons in place quickly raising arms to prevent Ranma from just brushing past. Behind her, Negi had summoned up a twister of some sort that the demons seemed unable to penetrate. Coward. He'd better be making some _damn_ good plans in there.

"Sorry about this, girlie." One of the demons rasped. "But we who are summoned can do nothing but obey the will of she who summoned us. There's no honor in slaying a defenseless cripple, but we've no choice."

"Hmph. Defenseless? You don't know me at all, do you. But yeah..."

She took a moment to look around and guage the surrounding forces.

"I guess a situation like this... could it be called a... fight for my life?"

"If the opportunity arises, any one of us will strike you down." The demon confirmed.

Ranma grinned.

"In that case... I can seriously go all out, without breaking my word."

She swung her arm in a grand, sweeping gesture, and a rank of demons staggered back to clutch at their sudden lacerations.

"Tch... with just one arm, the Yama is at about half power, it seems."

"Blades of air? Hurry! Take her out before-!"

"Too late! Taste my mad dance of destruction, and despair!" Ranma howled, setting loose a maelstrom of vacuum blades as she charged directly into the demon's midst.

Each blade had a certain range, and dissipated almost immediately once it passed that. If she made more than one, the range of all the blades would decrease in proportion. As such, while her range was only a handful of feet when blasting out as many blades as she could, just about anything unfortunate enough to be within that range was quickly rendered to the consistency of hamburger, as the demons quickly realized.

The first thirty or so fell in moments, after which the rate slackened quickly. But by the time Negi dropped his barrier and shot off, bypassing the fight entirely, she'd already accounted for nearly half of the demon's force.

"Tch. Running away, sensei...? No... that's where the hag went. I get it. Going on alone? Screw that! You two can have the rest of these, I've got mages to kill!" She yelled, clawing her way through a line of demons, who only half-heartedly made any attempt to keep the redheaded embodiment of mayhem secured in the area before she was already passed.

"Hm... Ranma-san has made a good showing, it seems. Their numbers have been significantly thinned... Asuna-san, please try to consider the remaining as no more than a mob of street thugs in your path!"

"That doesn't really help much!"

"More girls? Don't let these catch you by surprise! Take them out hard and fast!"

xxx

"Why'd you stop?" Ranma asked as she dropped in on Negi, who was in a staring match with some other runt.

"Hey! Don't butt in, Nee-san. This is a private, man-to-man rematch, and-"

Ranma interrupted with a knee to the solar plexus.

"Tch... arrogant little brats like you... I can't stand them. I wasn't talking to you anyway, whelp. But sensei, do you really have the time to piss away with this sort of thing?"

"N.. not really, but-"

"Whatever, do what you like. I'm going on ahead... and I'll be sure to let Konoe know that you were busy with your play date when I rescue her. Bye now."

She shot across the water. While she still hadn't quite mastered the midair shunpo, only up to pulling it off seven or eight times out of ten, pushing off the surface of water was actually an easy middle ground in comparison, as long as she didn't stop moving.

"HEEEEERE'S RANMA!" She yelled as she arrived at the psuedo altar, her immediate attack against the demon-summoning-fire-hag intercepted by the pale boy from before.

"Tch. You caught me off guard last time. I hadn't expected you to be able to hold your own in a brawl."

"Your arm is gone. Did you remove it yourself, in order to avoid petrification? That must have been painful." He noted, dryly.

"Don't patronize me, mage!" Ranma roared, shooting to the offensive.

She pulled every trick she knew, used every technique she'd learned. It wasn't enough. It had never been enough, perhaps, even if she'd gone into the battle with two good arms. He was just... overwhelmingly powerful. It was like he was toying with her, a boy with an insect, plucking legs off one by one to watch it squirm...

And then the fight ended, as he forced her into the air and launched his stone breath spell at her. Dodging in midair was a tricky sort of proposition for most things... an area-effect spell like that, there was only one way to dodge... and the still unmastered void shundo failed her, when she needed it the most.

She had enough time to land, drop heavily on her knees, and then glower balefully at him from her prone position before everything went dark.

xxx

Everything came back with a gasp and rush of pain and stiffness.

Still on the bridge... everyone had gathered. The pale boy had gone. The witch lady had been bound and was under Setsuna's guard, Negi was working an arm around uncomfortably, to regain full motion, with Asuna's help, Konoka was doing cosplay for some reason, and Evangeline and Chachamaru had shown up, the former crouching in front of her with a bland smirk. Checking if she was all right?

Why were they here? Had they come to the rescue? Why, and how would... she'd failed.

"I was... turned to stone? But... dammit!"

"Don't feel bad. That one is really powerful in his own right. If it was just you kids playing here, and he was feeling serious about it, you'd all have been dead back at Konoe's...." Eva condescendingly remarked.

Without a word, Ranma drove her good arm through the other girl's chest. Eva's grin only widened, and she pulled her arm out, ignoring the shocked gazes of the others. If she'd blinked, she would have missed the transition between a gaping, ruined hole and Eva's unmarred chest. Now that she looked, there was another hole in her clothes much like the one that had left behind.

"Of course, _I'm_ in another class of power altogether." Eva finished smugly. "Even so, if there were enough factors in his favor, that one might have won... but just you on your own? Hah!"

"I.... I just can't win? Dammit! No! I won't accept that! I refuse to believe it!"

She slammed her fist into the bridge, leaving cracks.

"Hoo... temper temper." Eva chided. "Besides... you're still unneccessarily restricting yourself. Remember this?"

She removed the pactio card from her pocket, surprising the rest of the assembled group once again.

"As long as this is around, there's free power in it for you, just for the asking. You've seen how it boosts Kagurazaka? Not at all interested? Whatever. But if you fight without every resource at your disposal, you're opening yourself up to loss, of your own volition. Still, go ahead and plod along. Study martial arts on your own. Fight on your own. Do whatever you want, kid."

She leered.

"And maybe... if you're fantastically lucky.... you'll even find a way to deal with that pesky curse, all on your own. I couldn't even tell it was there before, even when you assured me it was. Even now... I can just barely feel that it's there. Its had time and a half to sink its claws and teeth into you, hide itself away, wrapped in the very fabric of your being. I don't know that there's a single living person in all the world that can-"

"SHUT UP!" Ranma snarled, lunging to her feet, a jolt of pain running through her whole body with the motion. "Don't taunt me with honeyed words and twisted promises, mage! I don't want your power, I don't need your help! Don't do me any favors. Sooner or later... I _will_ kill you, or die trying."

"I wouldn't have it any other way. That obsession and hatred driving your every action, flaring up every time so much as the word 'magic' is mentioned... it's what makes you so interesting! I just enjoy poking you, to see how you react." Eva chirped.

Not even sparing the breath to spit a curse, Ranma turned and started stalking away.

"Oh? Where are you going now? If you don't head back to the magic assocciation, you won't get your arm reattached."

"_Screw_ the magic association! Screw that arm! And screw you too while I'm at it!"

She paused, then turned back for a moment.

"Sensei! Theres still a few days until we go back to campus. I'll meet up with the class back at the train."

xxx

Phonebooks were the most useful resource, she'd found. It was simply to her great fortune that she already knew the person she was looking for lived in this general area. Even so, dodging curious or horrified traffic wasn't exactly a walk in the park, as even with a shirt Zero had 'borrowed' to cover herself with, the stump of her left arm had begun once more to sluggishly seep blood, and that sleeve was by now wet and dripping.

The place was much like she'd imagined it would be. Large mansion, miles from town. Decrepit looking, with a rusty fence... it definitely gave off spooky vibes. She let herself through the gate and made her way up the footpath to ring the doorbell.

It was only a minute or two before it was answered by a tall, imposing figure in a tuxedo... with the head of what might be an alligator sitting on his shoulders, smiling toothily down. She masked her discomfort with the apparition, and Zero matched it grin for disturbing grin.

"Is Madaraki Fran in? If so, please let her know that Saotome Ranma requests a moment of her time."

The butler ushered her in wordlessly, and set a round of tea before leaving to fetch the current mistress of the house. Ranma took a cautious sip, testing the tea and aftertaste for any sort of chemical property. There were none, and after a moment a small scone made its equally wary way to her stomach before Fran arrived.

"Ah, miss Saotome. We met at the convention, didn't we?"

Fran settled into a chair, and they made pointless small talk for several minutes afterwards.

"But down to business. I see you have need of my services." Fran said, eyeing the bloody sleeve.

"Hm. I suppose you could say that I would owe you a significant favor, if you could grant one of my own first."

"Then you can't actually pay with money. I suppose it was too much to hope for. But if it's not too much to ask, how exactly did...?"

"I had Zero cut it off. I'll assure you though, that the amputation was entirely neccessary."

"I see. Well, little Veronica seems quite awestruck with you, so I suppose I've no objections. Hm. If you would?"

Ranma peeled off the shirt, baring the stump for inspection.

"Huh... very fresh. It doesn't look like any infection has set in yet, and I don't think any of the nerves have started to fail either. Alright. You may be under for a day or two, but I can definitely build you a new arm. We can get started right away."

xxx

A shambling figure lurched through the town, seeming to sniff at the air as it stumbled slowly along, seeking something.

xxx

"I suppose it's a bit guache to complain about a favor from a friend, but I was really hoping for the arm to be as close as possible to the old one." Ranma noted, not long after the painkillers wore off and she'd inspected the final result.

The new arm was actually almost identical in size and proportion to the old one, but it was heavily scarred, with no effort having been made to disguise the fact that it was bits and pieces of perhaps a dozen other arms cut exactingly down to size and fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle. At a glance, it looked like she'd rammed her arm all the way into a blender, then stapled the bits back on. It was hideous to the eye. Compounding that was that, rather than fingernails, thick white claws sprang from the tips of the new fingers.

"Oh? Aesthetics? And I designed this with a fighter in mind, too... If it'll be a problem, I can get you a skin graft, although it'll take another day or two..."

"No, it'll be fine." Ranma decided. "Most of my classmates are kind of oblivious, so if I just wrap it in guaze, they should be none the wiser until I can find something better.

"Ah! That's great!" Fran chirped. "Now, let me tell you about the special features... the claws are obvious, but they're actually retracted as far as they can go. You should be able to figure out how to get another quarter inch out of them at least. Just behind them are some venom-sacs, which should produce a deadly neurotoxin. It'll kill in minutes, but for safety it should take some effort to get it actually flowing. You'll note that there's a tiny pinhole just a few millimeters shy of the claw tips for the purpose of channeling the venom. Naturally, I couldn't have you dying of the poison yourself, so I put in a different organ in your thumb to generate the antivenom. If you accidentally poison yourself, it should be much easier to get it flowing than the venom itself, so there should be no worries there. If you ever need to counter the poison in someone else, you can just give them a little poke too."

As she lectured, she'd set up a chalkboard and scribbled out a diagram of the arm as she pointed out the tidbits.

"I've also set up a couple other things. There's a few bony blades in your hand that should pierce the back if you form a tight enough fist, there's a network of spines in your forearm that will do much the same if you flex your muscles in the correct way, and there's a hidden bone blade here at your elbow... oh, and I took the liberty of reworking your arteries and bloodsystem so that there's a thin layer of bone between them and the skin of that arm. Not much, but for the most part it'll deflect glancing shots that would otherwise have left you bleeding out. Your joints are still a little weak, I'm afraid, because I was worried about inhibiting flexibility..."

"No, that's fine. You've really done a great job."

"Master's combat efficiency has increased!" Zero cheered.

"Um... yeah. Anyway, I definitely owe you a favor. Don't keep me in suspense, 'kay?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. I collected more than enough samples from you to create a handful of clones for study and spare parts while you were out, so we'll call it settled at that."

"I'd... like to object, on a basis of my own morals and ethics, but realistically, those are pretty flexible. Call it a deal. Just, you know... for your own safety, even if you can, don't make the clones think they're me. Bad stuff'll happen. Yeah, for that matter, I'd be happier if they couldn't really think at all, but as long as they don't think they're me, it should be safe."

"Duly noted." Fran wryly remarked.

Ranma rose, hands in her pockets, and started to leave.

"Oh yeah..." she murmured, pausing at the door. "About Veronica... let her know to look me up at Mahora Campus, whenever she feels confident about her progression, and I'll conduct another examination."

"I'll do that." Fran quickly agreed.

xxx

A.N. Beeeen a while. Went ahead with my original idea for Muramasa, but nodded at the some of the others.

So yeah. Work-Study. And a heavy courseload..... ohmygodsotired,whyamInotsleepingyetblarg...

Anyway, been planning this since Fran was introduced. Ranma has an awesome new arm to learn to use. Should be fun. Though you may have noticed that I'm a bit bland on the fight scenes.... basically, since Fate is the Uber end-boss, they would have boiled down to 'Ranma gets bitchslapped and falls down', or went exactly like in the manga otherwise, and were just plain irritating to write in greater detail, so I clipped it out for the most part.

So, future possible plot points. There's lots. Good lord so many. But I plan to fit them all in. And hey, now I've got time to fit this stuff in between here and the festival-that-never-seems-to-end arc. Oh, one thing. Clones. Yes. Muhahahahaha.

I'll upload this whenever I wake up tomorrow. Hint: Not in the early morning. Weekends is for hibernation. Oh, so tired.... (falls over)


	6. Chapter 6

**Iiiiits, the 'Hey, hey, it could have been worse Omake show!'**

"I suppose it's a bit guache to complain about a favor from a friend, but..."

"You don't like it? And I designed this with a fighter in mind, too... If it'll be a problem, I can get you a skin graft, although it'll take another day or two..."

"No, it'll be fine." Ranma decided. "Most of my classmates are kind of oblivious, so if I just wrap it in guaze, they should be none the wiser until I can find something better.

"Ah! That's great!" Fran chirped. "Now, let me tell you about the special features... the claws are obvious, but they're actually retracted as far as they can go. You should be able to figure out how to get another quarter inch out of them at least. Just behind them are some venom-sacs, which should produce a deadly neurotoxin. It'll kill in minutes, but for safety it should take some effort to get it actually flowing. You'll note that there's a tiny pinhole just a few millimeters shy of the claw tips for the purpose of channeling the venom. Naturally, I couldn't have you dying of the poison yourself, so I put in a different organ in your thumb to generate the antivenom. If you accidentally poison yourself, it should be much easier to get it flowing than the venom itself, so there should be no worries there. If you ever need to counter the poison in someone else, you can just give them a little poke too."

As she lectured, she'd set up a chalkboard and scribbled out a diagram of the arm as she pointed out the tidbits.

"I've also set up a couple other things. There's a few bony blades in your hand that should pierce the back if you form a tight enough fist, there's a network of spines in your forearm that will do much the same if you flex your muscles in the correct way, and there's a hidden bone blade here at your elbow... oh, and I took the liberty of reworking your arteries and bloodsystem so that there's a thin layer of bone between them and the skin of that arm. Not much, but for the most part it'll deflect glancing shots that would otherwise have left you bleeding out. Your joints are still a little weak, I'm afraid, because I was worried about inhibiting flexibility..."

"No, that's fine. You've really done a great job."

"Master's combat efficiency has increased!" Zero cheered.

"It's just..." Ranma hesitated, then shook her head. "Where are the _tentacles_? God, I attend an all girls school for crying out loud, and I plan to take advantage of it. I want _tentacles_!"

"Hey, if that's all, no problem!" Fran cheered, whipping out a syringe full of some ominously glowy substance. "I have _lots_ of practice with that sort of thing! Give me fifteen minutes, and you'll be good to go!"

Miles away, the entire class of 3-A felt a unanimous cold chill seep down their spines.

**Omake Fin.**

xxx

Mahoranma

Say hello to the Replacement Goldfish! And some other stuff.

xxx

Ranma had been right. Just wrapping the hideously scarred arm up with guaze, while causing some odd looks, had been more than enough to disguise it for a few days, as she returned to campus and shortly after. Following that, she'd had the Sewing Club make something better, with measurements she took herself and passed along to them.... a 'fashion statement' of sorts, a single shoulder-length leather glove, festooned with all manner of buckles and nifty little ornamental locks.

It did the job of concealment, _and_ looked nifty. Neat. It was a bit heavy, though, with all the metal. Still, that wasn't a problem. While her old left arm would have at least registered the weight and have had to work through it to perform normally, this one didn't seem to realize it any more than if all the metal were feathers, and the leather gossamer silks. As though it weren't there at all.

There were benefits and drawbacks to the arm that Fran herself hadn't even realized, or at least hadn't thought to mention. For one, the sheer natural power behind it. Something had been done, perhaps artificially forcing a significant density increase in both muscle and bone, as she could hit far harder with what had been her off hand now than she'd been used to, and had had to adjust to that. She could hurl trees about now, if sufficiently motivated, although tearing up the landscape without need seemed a bad, attention drawing sort of thing to do.

Offsetting that was the speed. That arm had only been able to move at half her fastest punching speed when she first tested it. Still very impressive, but nothing like she was used to, and its rate of improvement in that regard was still far too sluggish for her tastes. If opponents only tried to block blows, it wouldn't matter, as the overwhelming power she could put into a single strike would probably crash through any physical defense, but once someone figured it out and started dodging, she was sunk.

Then there was the ki issue. That was neither good nor bad, but... weird. The ki still worked in essentially the same way she was used to it working, and do all the same things she did with it. It just felt strange. Like she was using the ki of a dozen other people, blended evenly into her own... and at that, it was entirely possible she might be. It was a feeling that would take a great deal of getting used to.

The biggest drawback, though, was the pain. It came and it went, but sometimes the arm would simply _burn_ with an unexpected, fiery intensity that was quite jarring and left her gritting her teeth. It wasn't usually that bad, but whenever such a surge came it was more than noticeable.

Still, with Void Shundo finally mastered, she had time enough to cope while she searched the library tomes for some kind of projectile technique.

She found several, but there were only a couple without detailed and significant drawbacks to their use. The Yama's blades were superior in every way, but she was bound not to use those unless in deathmatches she was pretty sure she would lose without... she'd pushed the letter of the restriction more than enough with the demon thing, and a vague sense of guilt about it had nagged at her since. Those would be what she studied next, then... her train of thought derailed as Chachamaru set a small box on the table.

"A gift, from Master." The gynoid explained.

Ranma had half a mind to simply smash whatever it was without another wasted moment, but the idea that perhaps that was what the smirking vampire intended gave her pause. After a long moment, she tugged a bit of folded over paper out of a taped-on envelope.

_'Yo, Kiddo. Time for a little lesson about barriers. They're invisible, thin walls of magic that almost all mages with anything resembling brains have up most all the time. For the most part, they'll deflect physical attacks by dissipating the kinetic energy put into them... or something, I was never big on theory, more practical uses. But basically, arrows and most bullets are a no go against barriers, although enough raw force put behind something, or the right technique, can smash through._

_Point is, Mages have them. Any good mage has LOTS of 'em, layered up. When I was playing with Negi that night, I only had one going myself, because that was about all a brat like him could manage, and that time on the bridge I didn't bother to have any up. Usually, I have more than a few though, even when I don't have much magic to spare. They're the least intensive of spells, you know._

_But hey, back to business. Built a little toy for you while vacationing in Kyoto, with a couple books I 'borrowed' from Nagi's place while the brat had us there, hehe. What it does is simple... it draws upon free magic from the area or its wearer to charge, and when willed active it creates a layer of a dozen barriers over a small area. Like, you know, a person, or a training dummy._

_Use it however you like, but let me know if you ever manage to brute-force your way through all twelve layers in a single shot, huh? You manage that, you'll almost start to look like a credible threat, hehe.'_

Fuming at the condescending tone of the letter, Ranma snatched up the box and reared to hurl it away... but stopped, calming herself and slowly setting it back down on the table. After another long moment of balefully staring at the box, she sighed.

"Evangeline... such a headache. Why give me something like this? Do you expect me to use it... or throw it away? Should I just destroy it, or is that what you want? Ugh... it's so difficult to spite that temptress."

"If I may..." Chachamaru interjected. "I believe Master doesn't actually expect anything. She merely does things such as this because she _can_, and would be every bit as amused with the situation no matter what you choose to do with her gift."

"I see. Then... it's just my own standards battling. Where I draw lines.... Must I use magic, to fight magic?"

Ranma sighed and leaned back, eyes closing as she considered the dilemma for several long minutes. Then they opened.

"Bare minimum... only the bare minimum. There is no way I can practice destroying the shields of a mage without mage's shields to destroy... that's the catch-22. And I can't imagine most mages would be willing to hold still and generate shields for me, knowing what purposes I would put such skills to."

Slowly, Ranma opened the box, revealing a carved ivory skull hanging from a delicate silver chain. It was a pretty thing, but made her nauseous to look upon. She closed the box and tucked it away in a pocket with a shudder, skin seeming to crawl in disgust beneath it.

"Tell Eva... convey my gratitude.... for the gift." She choked out, standing and lurching awkwardly away from the gynoid.

The previously bright day had turned completely sour, and she couldn't help but feel she'd dealt with the devil. An ill wind seemed to blow through the air, foretelling unpleasant things.

An unexpected copy of 'Mad Science Monthly' in her mail-slot was the least of it. One of these days, she'd have to figure out just what the hell it was she'd_ said_ at that party... it had apparently impressed a lot of people.

xxx

Elsewhere, myriad other and seemingly unconnected events were taking place.

In China, an amazon hunting party had formed. It had been confirmed that Herb, the Prince of the Musk, their ancestral enemy, had left the relative safety of his homeland with only his two strongest vassals, intending to hunt for a long-lost magical artifact in Japan. It was an opportunity far too delicious to pass upon, and while none of the warriors could individually match the dragon prince, numbers should be on their side. As a secondary purpose to the journey, outsider marriages had become scarce, and the village was becoming desperate for new blood. The hunting party, an equal group of males under the command of the women, had orders to acquire spouses while in Japan, and not to return until they were wed, even to ignore the rules of the Kiss of Death until they had all been paired off..

A heavy boulder, festooned with spirit wards, was besieged by a heavy rainstorm. It was not struck by lightning, the odds of such a happenstance being far beyond remote, but the ground beneath it had worn away under many such storms. It began a slow, creaking motion, sliding away from the cave behind it by millimeters before the mud's grip gave out and the boulder tumbled away, slowly at first, but rapidly picking up momentum. Within the cavern, eyes flashed.

People long forgotten by their quarry continued the hunt, a child of chefs and a completely lost young man, although the trails of their target were long faded and leads were further and farther between.

And in the rain, beneath a pair of umbrellas, Genma and a pigtailed young figure approached the Tendo household.

xxx

Soun's world was crashing apart. The unannounced arrival of his old friend and his son had seemed at first to be an unexpected blessing. However, things had gone horribly wrong.

Genma wasn't there to fulfil the promise. He had come levying accusations that Soun had broken that sacred vow. An oath between brothers! He felt that Soun had not lived up to his part of the bargain in some way, that his daughters abilities in the art were not sufficient!

Actually, his daughters had seemed unexpectedly pleased about the suddenly announced engagement being just as suddenly canceled by the other party, although Akane had been quite peeved at the derogatory assessment of her skills.

"I tried, Saotome! But after my wife passed on, I just..."

"Don't give me that sob story, Tendo! My son and I stopped by years ago, just shortly after her death, and you'd done nothing to train them! Or so close to nothing as to make no difference!"

"Back then?" Sound said, calculating time and age. "But! Back then, my daughters were just children! The only one even close to a proper age for more than what I'd already taught was Kasumi, and she wasn't interested in the Art! If you press children through harsher training too young, it damages them in ways that..."

Soun trailed off, for the first time taking a good, long, serious look at the boy next to Genma. The lad was far too quiet.... and still. He didn't seem to breathe unless you looked very closely for it, and his eyes... they were terrible, cold and empty and dead. It was like a pallid corpse was sitting at his table, and he'd only just noticed.

"Saotome..." He whispered. "My god... what have you done to your own flesh and blood?"

The daughters stared at the unexpected turn of the conversation, and Genma shuffled slightly in place before casting off the accusation.

"He's my pride and joy. Perfection in the art, and devoted to his parents, as is proper for a young man. Unfortunately, his mother had some small say in the final outcome, but it was no real trouble."

"Nodoka... _sanctioned_ this?" Soun wondered, horrorstruck.

"She's quite pleased with her obedient son."

"My god..." Soun whispered again, reaching haltingly across the table towards the young man, not sure why, but driven to show some sort of gesture...

"Boy. You're distracting Tendo. Wait outside while your elders speak." Genma barked.

Without a word the figure stood, padding outside and into the rain, ignoring that he was soaked within moments as the rain poured down upon him. Kasumi's hand shot to her mouth at the casual and thoughtless cruelty, Akane openly gaped, and even Nabiki seemed gobsmacked. Genma attempted to return the conversation to lecturing Soun, but nobody was really listening to him anymore.

"Genma..." Soun murmured darkly, too deep in pitying sorrow to even shed tears for the young man. "You have become... a greater monster than even the Master at his very worst could have hoped to have been."

"You dare?" Genma bellowed, slamming one meaty palm into the table in a show of intimidation that was, surprisingly, matched and countered by weak-willed, crybaby Soun.

"I DARE!" Soun bellowed right back into Genma's face, rage whipping around him like a storm, too far gone even to form a Demon Head that could properly express the anger. "I dare because it is the truth! _Look at him_! You've broken and destroyed your own son, to reform him into a shattered, twisted mockery of what he might have been! He... he can't even be called human anymore at this point, can he?" Soun murmured at the finish, rage sputtering out into sympathetic sorrow for the drenched boy. "You've turned him into nothing more than a highly trained attack dog. An animal at very most. Those eyes... like a broken doll..."

Soun shook his head.

"I want you out of my house." He stated flatly.

"Not yet!" Genma countered. "I've come to challenge you for your dojo sign, and-"

"_Take it._" Soun spat, voice full of disgust. "Take it and burn the accursed thing. I very much doubt any of my daughters could fight off your attack dog, and I wouldn't risk their health trying. I very much doubt you've bothered to teach it restraint. Take the filthy plank and go, I've no need of it, and if it will get you out of my home, never to return, then you're more than welcome to the gods-be-damned thing."

"Tch." Genma grunted sourly. "Worthless... just worthless, every one of you. Not an ounce of fighter's pride remaining... you just don't understand. Metal must have the impurities removed, be entrenched in flames and beaten with hammers, forged and tempered to craft a sword. A katana may have only one use, but for that one use it surpasses any other tool by far. Boy! Fetch the dojo sign. We're leaving. Although... since we were friends once, Tendo... I'll give you one last chance. My daughter."

Soun stiffened at the idea of another child, so broken as the first, but was mildly relieved as Genma continued.

"She's not deserving of the training my boy's been through. Left to her own devices for years at that boarding school, Mahora. I'm sure she's fallen far behind, the lazy whelp. I'll see her condition myself soon enough, when I pay her a visit. If you can reclaim the sign from her? Then no more need be said. Neither of us need ever darken the other's doorstep again."

Genma started to leave, but paused at the door.

"Soun... once, we were almost identical, brothers in all but blood, walking the same difficult path. I wonder... when was it that you turned off, and left me to walk alone? Your children could have had potential, if only you..."

He shook his head and left, leaving Soun to somberly contemplate his teacup.

"Saotome... no. You don't realize." He finally said, after the other man had left. "I may have turned from that road, but I'm not the only one. We've merely been... walking in opposite directions."

The dam finally broke and Soun let loose a flood of tears, clutching his daughters tightly to himself as though they would disappear, and although they normally would have strenuously objected, not a one protested the treatment.

Much later, after the tears had finally dried, Akane made an attempt to cheer her father, declaring that she would go to Mahora and reclaim the sign. Soun wasn't happy with the idea, but she wouldn't be dissuaded, and he was eventually convinced that she would go no matter what he said or did.

But not alone. Not if there was any chance of running into Saotome and his tormented son. No, they'd all go together, so he could keep an eye on his headstrong daughter.

Ranma slept fitfully all that night.

xxx

"Repeat after me. 'The loose goose swung gently on the noose.'"

Ranma groaned and massaged at her temples as the class chorused the nonsense-phrase, but complied. This was ridiculous. She'd welcome anything to get out of-

The door slid open and a teachers aide hurried in, whispering something to Negi.

"Ah? Oh. Miss Ranma, you have visitors."

_Almost_ anything, she hastily qualified, more than aware of Murphy's law, although by now there was no escaping that she was probably going from routine boredom to something new, but stupid and probably painful. Oh well. She stood and paced out of the room, pausing by the aide.

"Let them know I'll meet them by the World Tree Plaza." She said, having Zero hop down from her shoulder to the crook of an arm. "I'll be there in just a minute."

First, she would stop by the vending machines. No reason not to, if she was being given a pass out of class. After she'd collected a couple of sugary snacks, she was approached by another aide.

"Miss Ranma! You have visi-"

"Yes, I know, heading to the World Tree Plaza already, geeze." She grumbled, unwrapping a candy bar and taking a bite. "I'll be there in a minute."

She took her time walking, and arrived probably at the same time the other parties.

"Tendo." Her father greeted dourly.

"Saotome." The other man confirmed, daughters beside him.

"Old people." Ranma chimed in for her part. "Introductions done, lets get cracking. You, I don't know." She said, pointing to Soun, then turning the finger to her father. "And you, I'm not at all happy to see, so if you can just tell me what you want so I can shoot you down and get back to class, we can- _what the hell!?_" She barked, finger twitching from Genma to the thing beside him.

"I see you've noticed. Your broth-"

"That's not!" She barked, eyes narrowing. "It's not even a decent substitute. You can tell at a glance, who were you trying to fool... right. I guess this is _that_ Tendo-san... who's never seen the _real deal_."

Genma glowered as Ranma flatly refused to play along, his scheme coming slowly unraveled.

"Stop babbling nonsense. I know you've never accepted that you don't match up to your brother, but-"

"_You_ shut up!" Ranma barked back. "You're the one, it seems... who never accepted that he's gone! And you expect me to act like such a crude replacement will-?"

Genma frantically interrupted, trying to steer the conversation as he tossed the wrapped sign at her, which she sidestepped rather than catching as he'd intended, the Tendo's watching the ping-pong volley of words avidly.

"Bah! A doll like that. It must have been expensive." Ranma mocked. "You should have come to see me first. I'm sure I've been introduced to them, and could have gotten you a discount for your little toy."

"Your one to talk of dolls!" Genma shot, temper starting to fray. "What's that in your arm, hm?"

"I'm not a doll, I'm a puppet!" Zero countered, raising an arm, leaving Genma at a momentary loss for words as Ranma smirked and had her hop down at her side, standing without support.

"Zero unit is _far_ more than what meets the eye." Ranma stated smugly, as she nudged the sign with a toe. "What is this thing anyway?"

"It's the Tendo Dojo sign."

"Ugh. First birthday present ever, and it sucks. Thanks for nothing, old man."

"It's not your birthday."

"How the hell would I know!?" She shot back. "Tch."

She eyed the Tendo's, guaging them and how the youngest seemed to be girding herself for a confrontation and grunted.

"No, don't tell me, let me guess. You took the sign, and to get it back, they have to beat me."

"Er..." Genma mumbled. She was spot on, then.

"Great." She hefted the wrapped wood and tossed it their way without looking. "Two things though. First, I don't like hitting cute girls without a decent reason. Second, you want me to keep it from them. That's more than enough reason not to."

"Impudent child!" Genma snarled, his ill-thought-out plan crashing down around his ears. "Ranma! Teach your sister some respect!"

Ranma ignored the fake as it broke into a run, opting instead to slowly finish the last bite of her candy bar, ignoring the cries of warning from the Tendo's as the blow fell. One second she was there... and the next, the fake had its arm buried up to the elbow in an empty crater, an empty candy wrapper drifting down in mockery.

"Wo-ow. You're a strong little doll. Why, if that had landed.... I might even have felt an itch." Ranma mocked from a step behind it.

The fake swung into the attack, limbs a blurry swath of motion and destruction, each strike evaded by either a significant margin, or by the simple shundo expedient of not being where it was going to pass through. She finished the candy and frowned, blurring to its back and lifting it with her concealed hand.

"You're learning." She accused, as it thrashed in her grip. "I get it now. The little doll can't pass unless it can use the style properly, and the old man has never been at our level, at that. With _him_ gone, the only option left... was to force me into a fight, and have it watch, or participate. Since the start of this, it's gone from a jerky berserker to almost a half-decent novice level. You suck, pops." She stated flatly. "But your problem is that you think you have me over a barrel. Sure, the imitation can ape me until it's at a passable level, and it won't let up so I've got no choice but to fight it... but that doesn't mean anything if I know. You lose. Let's play a different game now."

She hurled the fake across the plaza, and unbuckled her arm-covering, letting it drop to the ground and kicking it aside for Zero to collect. The Tendo's went white at the sight of the deceptively mangled limb, and Genma even seemed slightly hesitant. The imitation just leapt back into action.

She blurred, driving it into the ground with her normal hand as her claws extended.

"It's called 'The Unmasking'. You see, this face doesn't belong to you. Let's see what's underneath!"

Matching deed to words, she sank her claws into the scalp and tore it free with a fleshy, squelchy ripping noise. Kasumi turned away, and the other girls turned a little green at the sight.

Beneath was revealed a monstrosity of metal and flesh, the hideous true visage of the imitation revealed.

"Bio-roid." Ranma noted. "You're Deth's handiwork. How nice of him to leave a maker's mark. I'll be sure to make mention of this when I pass on regards to him. But then, you're just a doll, that doesn't even realize you're supposed to pretend to be human. Defective merchandise, pawned off on an unsuspecting shmuck. Such a wretched doll... You're not even real. What hope could you have had?"

Ignoring its feeble attempts, even now, to force its way up and continue the fight, Ranma began to wrench off limbs, one by one, with her monstrous arm.

"Those without power... and those with power. There really is a world of difference."

Without a further word, she reached down to the head, ignoring the snapping jaws of its final, desperate attempts to follow its orders, and clenched it shut. The imitation went still.

"Such is the life of a doll."

"I'm very disappointed in you, girl." Genma stated reprovingly.

"You can bite me, old man."

"I'll be cutting off your tuition and allowance for this." He decided.

"Then cut them off. Do you really think... that after you'd abandoned me once, I would happily live at your whim, bound to your pocketstrings? I have money of my own, and a great deal of connections. Besides."

She tugged out a flask and made to throw it. Genma dodged, and she blurred, reappearing behind his landing point and finishing an arcing splash, leaving Genma a soggy panda.

"Animals have little more power than dolls. You've lost, old man. Go home and wait patiently... I'll end the curse, and bring Ranma back. But never try to simply _replace_.... never try it again. And know that neither of us will ever again pander to any of your whims. You four. Take your sign and go. I've nothing to say to you."

There was a long moment of silence as Akane gathered the wood carefully up and Genma left in disgust.

"Um..." Kasumi began. "Your arm... what happened to make it so...?"

"Do you think it's ugly?" Ranma wondered, displaying her arm, then causing spines and blades of bone to ripple through the skin along its entirety, prompting a gratifying flinch from the older girl. Ranma carefully lapped up a trickle of blood from one of the blades.

"I think it's beautiful." Ranma countered, allowing the bones to retract, leaving tiny holes all up and down her arm which were slowly healing even as they watched. "Because after all, even if all my skill in the art were taken away, this arm would be powerful... and power... power is beauty all of its own. Perhaps the only true beauty. Hmph. In that case, all of you, with your unmarked skin and fair faces, would be the ugly ones. What do you think of that?"

"That's... that's one way of looking at it." Kasumi demurred awkwardly.

"Feh. You're cute, but you're boring. How about you, then?"

"I agree." Nabiki admitted after a moment. "Power is attractive... but there are many forms of power, some more so than others."

"Hah. Naive. Power is power is power. When it comes down to it, it's all the same. It doesn't matter if you're a business giant... if the government decides to take your money to fix some emergency or other, you're sunk. The same, if a troop of tanks crash into the prime ministers house, there's not much he can do about it. There are some things that have an advantage over others, but when it comes down to it, it's all power, and when you have enough... lines blur. That's the kind of power..."

Ranma frowned.

"And why the hell am I still talking to you, anyway? I've got stuff to do. Get out of my face."

Ranma walked away, collecting Zero and washing her arm free of blood in a fountain, as Chachamaru made herself known, having apparently dropped by after class ended.

"Ranma... am I... Real? Or am I a..." She eventually asked, seeming to be in some sort of turmoil over the question. Ranma grunted and settled in, waiting for the puncture wounds to at least scab over so she could replace the glove, if only out of deference to the sensibilities of others.

"I wouldn't worry about it." Ranma decided. "Just by asking that question, and being seriously worried about the answer... people are more than the sum of their parts, you know. Any kid can take his allowance and go out to buy an equal amount of the stuff that makes up a human body. Being a person isn't reliant just on what you're made of, it's something more than that. So yeah. You're definitely real, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"..."

If Chachamaru was capable of blushing, she'd have been doing so.

"I'm... glad to hear you say that, Ranma-san. Even if you're just trying to cheer me up..."

"Hey, would I lie? You know, without more of a reason than just to protect someone's feelings? I'm too blunt for that, just calling it like it is."

xxx

Genma was unnerved. When he'd left Ranma, she'd been at a certain level, and he'd expected her to either remain at that level indefinitely or to lose ground without his, or indeed any, guidance. Instead.. she was far and beyond the level he'd left her.

And that speed technique... and that _arm_ of hers... what the devil had she been doing in his absence? And why hadn't she kept her father in the loop, so he could properly benefit from his child's toil?

The uneasy thought began to settle in... that maybe, just perhaps, he'd made the wrong decision, after Jusenkyo.

xxx

A.N.

Eh... Kinda short, this time. Shorter still, 'cause of the omake. But better than nothing, yeah?

Anyway, looks like there's some semblance of a plot forming up. It always surprises me when these things happen, because I go into stories like this with no more than 'Hey.... Ranma and Negima. Yes, Win.'. No seriously.

Might mix things up and draw another random crossover or two out of a hat. For the lulz. Or just because I can. Or specifically to irritate people. You know how it goes.

Time for a nap, upload in the mornings (passes out).


	7. Chapter 7

**Explanatory Omake times, Go!**

_Part One, Genma's misogyny. In verbal snippets rather than whole cloth.-_

**Genma, Age six**-

"Don't wanna play with _girls_. You gots cooties."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Well...! You gots bugs in your undies!"

"Huh? Do not."

"Do NOW!"

"Hey, whatcha... AGH, NO!"

**Genma, Age ten**-

"Son, it's time I taught you about the facts of life. But rather than bumble through an awkward explanation that would just humiliate the both of us, I've hired a streetwalker to take my place for this interlude. That way, the only one being humiliated is you. Be back in two, three hours maybe."

"Huh?"

"Hm... you're a cutie. Shame to break you so young. I'll just use the number nine black and crop combo, rather than the full blown devestator, okay?"

_"Huh!?"_

**Genma, Age ?-**

"Hold these for me, will you?"

"M-master, but these are...!"

"There! He's got ACCOMPLICES!"

"W-wait, you've got it all wrong! Just give me a chance to explain, and-"

"DIE!"

(Repeat this track indefinitely)

**Genma, Age ?**

"Son, I've arranged a marriage for you!"

"Please, no... no more women, forever... die a monk..."

"I'll leave you two to get acquainted, then. Incidentally, contraceptives are in _that_ drawer."

"Oh god.... um..."

"My name is Nodoka, pleased to meet you. And I'll be wearing the pants in this relationship from now on."

"But... I'm the man?"

*Snikt*

"_That..._ depends entirely on me at this point, doesn't it?"

"Y-yes, dear."

**Genma, Age not too much longer than the last tidbit**-

_Censored due to horrible, horrible deviancies on Nodoka's part. And can you really say you're surprised?_

_Fin._

So yeah, misogyny, and deep seated psychological reasons for it. And unless I think of something better before pinning it down in an actual chapter, this'll probably be about how it went in this retconned backstory.

_Part Two, Ranma's Science Class.-_

Ranma pops in wearing a labcoat and fake glasses, wheeling a chalkboard.

"Ahem. Apparently, someone actually noticed how I used my strong, biological monstrosity of an arm to lift Deth's bio-roid into the air, but pinned it down with my more normal limb. Rather than half-ass it with 'haha, yeah', the author decided to have me explain the reason for that in rather more significant detail. It involves a combination of the forces involved, gravitational resistance, blahblahblah, you know this stuff, I'm assuming most of you went to school."

Ranma spends a moment to doodle a figure of a person, then a skeleton overlaying it, followed by the word 'metal' and an arrow pointing from it to the skeleton.

"As this demonstrates, while a significant portion of the bio-roid is organic, for the most part vital organs and such, more than half of it is mechanical in nature. IE, metal. Not the best metals around, of course, considering the 'roid in question was the bargain-bin model, but still metal. Now metal is, as anyone who's come into contact with it for any amount of time knows, really damn heavy. I'll give those of you who didn't know a minute to sort out this life-altering realization of universal truths. Finished? Good."

She sketched another two doodles, one of a pigtailed stick-figure lifting another, and one of the same figure pinning the other down.

"As you can see, there's a significant difference between these two scenarios. With the bio-roid lifted, gravity exerts its sway, and the full force of its significant weight comes to bear on the arm holding it. That's not to say I couldn't _do_ it with the other arm, but with a super-arm more suited for the job, why bother, right? On the other hand, pinning it to the ground has no such problem, merely requiring that I keep enough force exerted to keep it from gaining the leverage to force its mass back into the upright position, which could easily be achieved with the physically weaker arm."

While talking, Ranma doodled a sketch of a torso in a puddle of fluid.

"Entirely aside from that more logical point, I needed that arm free for the whole limb-ripping and skull-crushing thing. In any case congratulations to anyone who's slogged through this explanation, losing precious minutes of their lifespan that they will never, _ever_ get back, when a simple 'Metal weighs lots' would have sufficed. You win one of Kasumi's cookies! Except not, because I actually stole and ate all of them before coming in. So instead you win a handful of pocket lint and a free sixty seconds to run before I unleash the hound-thingies with glowing eyes, acid drool, and tentacles. Bye now!"

The camera fades to black with Ranma cheerfully remaining in the frame and making obscene gestures at the viewers.

_Fin._

.....

I'll admit it, I had a lot more fun with that one than I really should have. One more for the road!

_Ranma's Science Class 2- Grading_

Ranma saunters into the room, once more in the glasses and labcoat combo.

"Hi all! Anyway, recently during the authors 'job' of Work-Study, he got railroaded into grading a stack of assignments. In all honesty, he should have realized what he was getting into from the start, but hey. Brainfart. I guess he figured he would just be working with multiple choice or whatever. In any case, instead of a hate-filled rant, with much 'AASDJLFKJSAFJKAJFF!' and vexation, he's having me take over while he drowns himself. Or just cools off. One of those. Anyway, the point of this little happy-fun time will be covering some of the, unfortunately enough, extremely common problems."

Ranma coughs into a fist and takes up a lecturing stance.

"So. First. If there is a blank on a fill in the blank question, then _fill in the blank_. Even if you don't know, freaking put _something_ there, or don't complain when you turn in something half-completed and get a fifty at best. God, people...

Second. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, _the works_. If whoever's grading has to translate whatever it is your saying from absolute gibberish, then you can expect that to be reflected in your grade. And seriously, if you're going to do that, then at least be _right_ at the end of it. Because if _I_ had to spend twenty minutes on just one question to work out what the hell you were saying, and then you were _wrong_, and I could have just marked you wrong from the beginning and saved myself the trouble? _Your suffering would never end_.

Next, handwriting. Not nearly as important, yeah, but at least _try_ to be vaguely legible here. I mean, god... what is this? A 'u' or a 'v'? This funky looking character right there? Is that supposed to be a 9 or a 0, because dammit, it doesn't look like either. It looks like something you'd find carved into an archaeology dig somewhere in Europe, or a freaky astrological symbol. So yeah, if at any point the grader feels like they're trying to read ancient Hebrew when they look at your writing, your grade is going to suffer out of sheer spite and malice. The pain _will_ be spread around.

And finally, _read the damn instructions, for the love of god_! If the instructions say 'Figure out how percentages of 'x' change given the following conditions. Are they higher, lower, or unaffected?', then have the common decency to at least _mention_ percentages _somewhere_ in your answer. Not 'weight', or 'mass', or just restating the conditions slightly differently. _Percentages. Have them._"

There's a sharp cracking noise, and Ranma looks down to see that her hands, having slowly tightened into fists over the psuedo-lecture, were now clenched around handfuls of jagged splinters, torn from the desk she'd been leaning on.

"Right. In any case, if you're in college? You should really know better by now, and you deserve failure, forever."

Ranma paused, and grinned.

"This will _all_ be on the Final, by the way. And my grading practices are a little bit different. You pass? Great, no different from anyone else. You fail, still not too different. You fail specifically because of any or all of these mistakes? I press a button, and you drop into a deep, deep pit where you _burn in agony forever_. Happy studying, all!"

_Fin_

So much hate... so much hate... but anyway, on with the _real_ show!

xxx

Mahoranma

xxx

They were after her again.

She didn't leave campus much.... for that matter, she didn't leave the classroom much. But she left campus even less, having learned long ago the foolishness of doing so. Every time she did, one of them would pick up on her location, sooner or later, and then it was a mad dash back to safety.

Even so... every so often, she couldn't help but to wander off for a while, away from the more familiar surroundings. And now, one of the black-robed swordsmen had found her again.

"S-Somebody! Help meee!" She screamed, hightailing it down empty alleys and nearly-so roads, trying to lose her pursuit.

"Look, if you would just _hold still_ and let me hit you, you'd be doing me a great favor, and would wake up in a far better place!" the robed man yelled, waving his all too sharp and pointy blade for emphasis.

"Nooo! I don't want to get hit with a sword! I don't want to go to a better place! Leave me alooone!" Sayo cried, putting a bit more speed on and praying that she wouldn't trip over her own insubstantial feet.

Naturally, the second she spared a thought to worry about it, just that happened, and she caught a flash of red before she tumbled down. That was it then... it was all over.

"N-no... someone, help..."

"Idiot spirit. Nobody can even _see_-"

It was right about then that the robed man ran throat first into Ranma's gloved fist.

"And just what... am I not supposed to be seeing?" She wondered, hefting her sack of groceries over a shoulder as the man dropped to his knees and choked and spluttered for breath. "Is this creep... bothering you, Sayo-san?"

"You could have _killed_ me!" The swordsman whined, clutching and rubbing at his throat.

"Ah? I suppose I could have. But you're still alive, aren't you? Kind of a shame. So what's it to be, Mr. Wannabe Samurai? I'm not particularly in a homocidal state of mind right now, and Zero's not here to press the issue, so if you slink off like a kicked dog right now, I won't even hurt you more. One-time only deal, you know?"

"Tch. I wasn't expecting a spiritually sensitive human to just show out of nowhere. I'll admit, that first blow took me by surprise. But what more can you do, against a Shinigami? I'll be assisting that lost soul in passing on now, girl, and then fix your memories, and you can't really do anything to stop me."

"Okay, see, now _that_ was the totally wrong answer, and now I kinda want to make a hat out of your ribcage." Ranma pointed out, setting her groceries to the side. "Keep an eye on that for me, would you Sayo-san? And in case you were wondering, the _correct_ answer was 'Oh god yes, please let me leave with all of my bits and pieces still intact and attached and I promise neither you or your classmate will ever have the misfortune of seeing my ugly-as-sin face ever again'. Just in case you were wondering."

The admittedly less than attractive swordsman glowered.

"You know... technically, we aren't supposed to interact with humans, if at all avoidable. But hell, one little bitch more or less caught up in a mugging gone wrong, who's going to notice? I'll kill-rk!"

He was cut off in mid threat by a knee to the solar-plexus, Ranma having gotten bored, and staggered backwards, gasping for breath.

".... Huh. That's it?" Ranma wondered. "You know, you called yourself a 'shinigami', but I'm afraid I'm just not seeing it."

"That was... shunpo? But you're human!"

"'Shunpo'? Flash Step? Nah, that was Shundo, or instant movement, a kind of advanced martial art technique. Don't know what that shunpo crap is."

"Hrk... That's not really good. I can't tell it from... But I can still win! With my zanpakuto, I'll-!"

Ranma zipped in again, kicking the sword out of the man's hands and kicking his feet out from under him, sending him crashing unexpectedly into the ground.

"Soul Cutter? For some reason, a name like that is worrying. Still, no matter how powerful the weapon, if its wielder is disarmed, it's useless. With a waste of flesh like you holding it, it could only really be called a 'Butterknife', at best. But hey, I'm tired of playing with you. There's only so many times you can kick a retarded puppy before it gets old and you start feeling a bit guilty. So heck, I'll even give you one last shot."

A malevolent, leering cast fell over Ranma's features as she impaled the sword in the concrete and set one foot on the pommel.

"Beg. Get down on your belly and grovel in the dirt like the worm you are, whimpering for my forgiveness, and I'll let this whole messy business slide. And you can keep all of your ribs."

xxx

"Back there... did you really have to humiliate that poor man like that?" Sayo wondered.

"Yes. Yes I did." Ranma replied, a happy smile still cracking her face apart.

"But! That was really mean! I mean, yeah, he was a meanie first, and he kept yelling about how he was going to hit me with his sword, and kept trying to cut me, and wouldn't listen when I asked him to leave me alone, or stop when I screamed for help and started crying, and he chased me when I ran, and... uh... what was my point again?" The ghost wondered, a bit sheepishly.

"How that guy in the robe totally deserved everything I did to him, and more besides?"

"Oh? Oh yeah! Thank you, Ranma-san!"

"Entirely aside from all that, now he'll definitely be back at some point, to salve his wounded pride. And if he still sucks as much as he did today, I can just kill the moron and save a great deal of trouble, and if he's really sort-of invisible like you say, I don't even have to bother much hiding the body. Score!"

"Aheh?"

An awkward silence set in between them.

"Um, so... how long... have you been able to see me, exactly?"

"Hm? Oh, years, probably." Ranma said, without an ounce of tact. "Why?"

"B-but... if you've been able to see me for so long! Why didn't you ever...."

"Ever what? Say hi? Introduce myself, or go out of the way to try and make friends? You don't pay much attention, do you? Just because you're kinda dead, do you think I would treat you any different than the rest of the class?"

"Ice Queen..." Sayo murmured, recalling that Ranma was right, she didn't treat her any different than anyone else in class... she'd just assumed, that because nobody else...

"But... why don't you make friends with people?" She wondered aloud. "I mean, you're a really nice person.... you know, when you aren't making grown men cry like babies, anyway. You could have lots of-"

"Friends? Meh. I'm just not interested... I don't really like people enough to go through that kind of effort. I do what I want, and if someone wants to do the same thing for a while, then fine. But I'm not going to go out of my way to accomodate someone else unless I have to."

"But... don't you ever get lonely, if you push people away like that?"

Ranma stared at the ghost for a moment, then shrugged.

"Lonely? Who knows. It's really none of your business, though. I have things to do... when I've achieved my goals, there'll be time enough for more pointless things."

"That's... really sad." Sayo murmured, thinking about long nights in an empty classroom. "All right then. I've decided. From now on... I'm not haunting the classroom anymore. I'm haunting you specifically, Ranma-san!"

"Oh? Good luck with that."

"Th-this is no laughing matter, Ranma-san! From now on, I'll be sticking to you like glue, wherever you are."

"Fair enough. Ground rule, though. If you're going to hang around while I'm bathing, you're going to have to get naked too. Fair's fair."

"R-RANMA-SAN!" Sayo stuttered, taken completely off guard.

Ranma just chuckled and unlocked the door, stepping into her room, where Zero looked up from sharpening something.

"Hm? No wait, don't tell me, let me guess this one, Master. 'She followed me home. Can we keep her?' And I dunno, a ghost of your very own is kind of a big responsibility, right?"

"Even the doll could see me!?"

xxx

Magic barriers were hard to pierce. Ranma hadn't really realized that until she'd begun playing around with the little skull. Turning it on or off was easy... just will it, and it was so, and it would remain on until she willed it off.

Even with her normal arm, a single barrier didn't do much more than a layer of mere stone would have done to deflect her blow. The first, outermost barrier was always gone in a single shot, smashed apart as easily as an inch-thick slab. It was the next layer, immediately after the first, where things started getting tricky.

It was the same as the first. It seemed just a bit harder to penetrate, as though it were thicker and denser, but it was really identical... the problem was that unlike stone, in the instant she made contact that first layer would somehow bleed off a decent chunk of of the initial momentum and force from the initial blow even as she smashed through it, meaning that the strike was simply weaker than it started when it reached that second layer of defense.

A full power blow with her right arm had enough behind it to smash its way through that layer as well, but the third would stall the blow dead in its tracks. It was no good... two levels of protection was just her limit, with that arm.

Being able to put more force behind her kicks, she'd tried those, and achieved marginally more success there. With a full power kick, she could break three barriers in one shot, but no more at this point.

Her new arm shone in these tests, of course, blasting through the first four layers on any given shot, and smashing a fifth as well if she really pressed it, though it would throb agonizingly up past her shoulder for a minute or two afterwards. Her arm was strong, but the remaining bits of her body it had been grafted onto weren't quite enough to match it at full power, just yet.

No matter. As long as there was progress, it didn't matter much. It wasn't like she had to break through the full dozen immediately.

The problem was strategy. If she faced a mage with so many barriers... she was essentially sunk, depending on factors. With just the charm, it took approximately a minute after a barrier was destroyed to create a new one, and could only recreate a single barrier at a time. It was easy enough, therefore, to simply force a rapid blitz of strikes until all the barriers were gone, then tag the dummy.

It would be sheerest foolishness to assume that a mage could be taken down in the same way. Eva herself had said that they were 'the simplest' of spells. With no other information than that about barriers, she would be forced to assume the worst until proven otherwise, that a given mage could recreate his shields every bit as fast as she could destroy them, or faster, and that was a losing battle. No... the way to go was a strike of sheer, overwhelming power, driving through every barrier at once, and then still having enough oomph behind it to give the mage in question some serious trouble.

That kind of strength would need her to be at a level that would take all kinds of effort and time to achieve, though. Again, there was no need to rush things. She had other avenues to run her thoughts down as well.

The ki-projectile was coming along nicely. There were two forms of it... an orb or bullet form, and a beam. Both were unneccessarily flashy, and weren't at the level of the sealed Yama, and the _color_ of the energy was offensive to her senses, a soft baby-pink, but they'd do... and she was sure she could crank the power up with a little experimentation.

The orb had more power in it to start than the beam, but actually consumed less energy to produce, being a single use blast of sorts. The beam, in contrast, was less intensive to start, and did somewhat less damage to begin, but it remained for as long as she held it, or until she ran out of enough ki that keeping it going wasn't a viable option any more. If she held it long enough, it did exponentially more damage than a single bullet.... but still not enough to burn through more than six layers of barrier, when she tested, and it exhausted her for hours afterwards. Compounding that, unlike the bullet, the beam of energy wasn't actually self-contained, and so a _lot_ of energy bled off uselessly between point A and point B.

So basically, unless her target was good enough to hold still and ignore their barriers, and subsequently flesh, sizzling away, or alternatively was so ridiculously huge or slow and lumbering, or both, that she couldn't possibly miss or fail to keep the beam trained on them, the orb was infinitely more cost effective. She'd have to see about a way to rework the technique to remove the inefficiency, but for now she'd have to stick to launching the orbs.

And then there were other things to consider. Less orthodox things. Her arm, for instance. She wasn't fond of the idea of deliberately mangling herself so as to have an excuse to replace things, or of just going ahead and having her body reworked with no excuse at all, but it couldn't be denied that the new limb was an asset indeed.

And then there was another idea.

xxx

"Hiya Deth. Long time no see." Ranma said, letting herself into the lavish parlor and having a seat at the table, refreshments already set out.

"Ah, quite. And what brings a fellow scientist to the abode of this humble intellectual?" Deth asked, sipping at his tea.

"Not much... just thinking about something. I noticed that my old man picked up one of your jobs at some point... pity on his part that he was dumb enough to try testing it out against me."

"Hm...That low-end model I sold to Genma Saotome? He's your father, then. I can't imagine that it would last more than a minute against you at the most generous estimates. More advanced ones would, of course, have provided more of a challenge, but, he was only willing to pay so much, in the end."

"Let me know if he tries to pick up another unit, 'kay? Would be nice to know if he's planning any more boneheaded stunts. But anyway... that's kinda why I'm here. See, I noticed that the 'roid was learning, during that little scuffle, and pretty fast for a hunk of cobbled together spare parts. And then I got to thinking, 'Man, two or three of those would be handy to have around, as long as they weren't the crap model'. And then I thought, 'You know, even the crap model could have uses, in enough numbers...'."

"I see. A business visit then. I suppose I have more than a surplus of spare materials lying about... a catalogue?" Matching word to deed, Deth revealed the item and offered it.

Ranma accepted the proffered folder and flipped through it, eying the exorbitant prices.

"Hm... primarily, I would want this model here. The SP-X307, 'Odin'. Secondary, oh, say a dozen basic C-21 gruntbots as simple infantry... with two... no, three of those retrofitted to be able to provide field-medic aid, if that should be needed. And heck... throw in the X-13 'Sylph', just for kicks."

"My my. Quite the little arsenal. Are you planning a war, or intending to set yourself up as the dictator of some third world country, or anything of that nature? Things tend to get quite... exciting, when such things are attempted."

Ranma arched an eyebrow, but refused to otherwise explain her selection.

"In any case, you should be aware, if your main motivation is the artificial intelligence 'learning' ability, that their memory is very deliberately limited. They can, in essence, learn to do one thing _spectacularly_, albeit at the cost of being completely incapable of doing much of anything else. A better idea would be for each to learn to do a couple or handful of roles very well, and round it out with other abilities..."

"I understand perfectly."

"Something of a shame, really, but if they are made too perfect, not only are they a danger, but I'll be in danger for making them. There are rules about such things, and the society would hang me out to dry. I can, of course, increase the memory size somewhat, for a price, but it's already more than large enough for most purposes, at average human level, and it's really better to just have a different one fill in when different roles are required."

"Yes, yes. The dolls turning upon their makers and erecting a horrific dystopia of some mechanical sort, I've read this horror tale in several incarnations. Precautions have been taken, and that's good enough for me. It's not _my_ area of expertise." Ranma stated, not at all impressed.

"Quite. In any case, hrm... this adds up to be quite the total sum."

"I can pay, if that proves neccessary." Ranma said, setting her elbows upon the table and allowing her fingertips to come to rest against each other. "But in all honesty, I prefer to settle arrangements more through an exchange of Favors, or through the barter of goods and services. Before the topic of money comes to the table, I'd like to inquire... if there are any sort of tasks that may need performing, which would leave you more amenable to having the product simply delivered, no further questions asked?"

"I suppose I could think of... a few little things." Deth drawled, gaze creeping slowly downwards.

"Oh? I'm afraid, Dr. Deth, that the price attached to _that_ manner of service is one that I can _guarantee_ you will not be willing to pay."

The scientist shrugged, not having been particularly serious with the innuendo himself, but having felt obligated to make the attempt, in spite, or perhaps because of the significant age barrier.

"I'm afraid that I've no such task at present time. Of course, I'm not at all opposed to this idea of an exchange of favors... a significant amount of money is simply circulating from one scientist to the next, and could be freed up for better use if such a system were to catch on... but I have my doubts. What is to stop you from simply taking my product, and then refusing me when I come to collect my due?"

"I give you my word." Ranma stated solemnly.

"Your word... yes. For some, yourself most probably included, that would be significantly binding, a promise tied to honor. But it's not enough. I need something more concrete, if this system is to catch on... not everyones word is worth the same, these days."

"Something more... I see. Then if one refuses to repay a favor, without due cause... let _everyone_ turn upon them, to punish as they see fit."

"Hm.... hm, yes... yes, that might just do." Deth decided. "For the most part, the mere fear of such punishment would be enough to keep troublemakers in line, and if an example should have to be made, then even the most unruly would fall into place after."

"Excellent." Ranma decided. "Our business is then concluded, though I do have one additional request. Regarding the skin-jobs of these roids... I'd much prefer that they be attractive to the eye, and so a feminine encasement would be more to my tastes. Have the grunts be similar in appearance, but with something different about them to denote which, exactly, is which. Similarly, they will need uniforms of some sort. I'll leave the exact details of such to your discretion."

"Of course. It will be no trouble at all. It will take a month or two for construction, and little more for shipping. I'd suggest having someplace aside from your dormitory to keep them."

"It won't be a problem."

xxx

"That place was kind of creepy." Sayo said. "For that matter, so was that Deth person. Why do you need robots?"

"Because." Ranma replied helpfully.

"So, what, you just did all this on a _whim_?"

"Not really. If you must know, then only the Odin and Sylph models were whims... I'd have been getting the gruntbots anyway. There's just so much use to be found behind a group of able hands, mindlessly following my orders to the letter. And numbers alone have advantages in them. But really, I just don't feel like explaining it. On to other topics."

Sayo 'hmph'ed but accepted the decision, knowing that she'd never really had a say in it to begin with.

"So. What's it like, as a ghost?" Ranma wondered, genuinely curious.

"Bo-ring." Sayo replied without a moments thought. "And kinda lonely. And scary, at night, because you don't sleep and things get creepy in the dark. And even though I don't have any feet, because I was clumsy in life, I often fall down, and..."

"I see." Ranma interrupted, having been interested, but not particularly so much in such details. "Do you do anything for fun?"

"Um... sometimes, I go and stand by a convenience store instead of staying in class. It's off campus though, so the robe guys or monsters show up sooner or later."

"Monsters?" Ranma wondered, interested in this new development.

"Oh, yeah. The robe guys are bad, but the monsters are worse... neither of them can really follow me back onto campus for some reason, though. I wonder why?"

"Focus, Sayo... we were talking about the monsters."

"Oh, right. Well, I don't know what more to say. Monsters. Big, angry, hungry, 'grr!'. They have masks, and don't usually talk much... they're usually too busy trying to eat me. Oh! Once, a robe guy and a monster were chasing me at the same time, and the robe guy stopped chasing me to kill the monster."

"Huh. A struggle between predators, or something? Or do the 'shinigami' just place a higher priority on the monsters? Weird. I should have thought to interrogate that guy while he was at my mercy. No help for it now, I guess..."

Sayo paused, then drooped.

"You aren't going to go hunting for the monsters now, are you?"

Ranma was silent for a long moment before answering.

"If you mean, 'drop everything and start looking right this very moment', then no."

"Well, that's better than nothing." Sayo admitted, sourly.

"Hey, don't worry. I wouldn't let you get eaten, any more than I'd let that shinigami guy do whatever it is he wanted to do. And when I do go, I'll have Zero as backup."

It didn't comfort the ghost much. And just as she'd feared, only a day later, they were out looking for one of the monsters, with the clearly defined search plan of 'heck if I know... hey, try acting tasty, maybe one'll show up'.

Sayo didn't know which was more aggravating. That she'd somehow been talked into going along with the idea, or that it _worked_.

It had been kind of scrawny, for a monster. General human size and shape, if heavily muscled, weird colors and a funky mask, just as Sayo'd said. Ranma had almost balked, thinking that they'd just caught a costume geek of some kind until she noted the empty hole bored directly through its chest.

The interrogation had been slow, once it was captured, but the things _constant_ whining about how hungry it was, and how it wished it could break free and devour their puny souls, swiftly got Ranma into the proper mood and mindset, while Zero watched gleefully. Sayo, in contrast, had turned away and hidden her eyes, despite that all Ranma ever got around to doing was to rough the thing up a little and promise to let it free if it spilled its guts about everthing it knew about anything.

Apparently, the monster wasn't at all used to prey that could quickly and effeciently become the predator, and it happily talked. Although, it didn't know much of anything. It had been human. It had died, and become a ghost. And then it had become a Hollow. It knew, vaguely, that it could use spirit energy to fight and capture prey, and it devoured ghosts and humans with high levels of spirit energy. Hers wasn't actually that great, but she had enough to be a light snack, followed by a more filling meal of Sayo, it seemed.

After a while, its store of useful information dried up, and Ranma left it, free of her, just as promised. And with every bone in its arms and legs broken, usually in multiple places. Either that shinigami or another Hollow would happen upon it sooner or later, and then it would no longer be any threat to anything, no matter how ineffectual it seemed.

Ranma was forcibly reminded that, for a human, she was actually really strong, and any normal person who simply happened to have significant 'spirit energy' wouldn't have stood a chance against the thing if it chose to devour them.

"Man... 'gemstone of reality'. That Rainyday wasn't kidding. Seems I keep learning about more and more sources of energy.... Ki and Magic, to start, nightmare juice, or whatever it is that Rainyday's little friends run on, and now 'spirit energy'. Kind of a pity, but there's nobody in town that I can learn much more about that from, I guess. Know the shinigami guy won't be talking, no matter how nice I ask."

"That... _thing_ mentioned-"

"Yeah, I remember. Karakura. Lotsa ghosts, loose spirit energy floating around, probably a few people who know something I could use. Problem, the place is pretty far away. Can't go there to look around, _and_ have classes here. Just won't work."

"Just ditch class for a couple of weeks." Zero advised.

"Can't do that, either. Need to keep my grades up, you know."

"Why?"

Ranma started to answer, then paused, frowning, as it wouldn't come. If Genma wasn't paying her way, then...

"I just do, alright?" She replied lamely. "Obsessive need to be the best at everything I put myself to, or something, I guess. Need to smack pops a couple times for that, one of these days."

Ranma sighed and reluctantly admitted that the 'spirit energy' thing was turning up a dead end, and she needed to put her focus back onto more profitable pursuits.

It was, perhaps, fate that drew her eye the next morning to a recently placed poster in the hallways as she passed. It advertised a two week 'student mini-cultural exchange program'... basically a group of school districts swapping kids around to show off how _their_ kids were smarter, and pretending that it reflected upon their abilities as teachers. The poster advertised available slots to exchange with schools in Kyoto, Hokkaido, any number of scenic tourist trap sort of cities...

And, almost unnoticed, wedged in with all the others. Karakura.

xxx

Barring Chao, Ranma's grades were not just top of the class, but in almost the top five in the entire school. Chao and those other four girls were sort-of tied, though, as they scored perfectly every single time, and a minor error here and there would occasionaly creep into Ranma's own assignments... so technically, she could be considered either number six, or number two, depending on how it was viewed.

As not one of the other girls had been interested in this little showing-off program, Ranma was the highest scorer involved, and so her decision of destination pretty much took total precedence over just about everyone else's. Even better, Karakura was only listed as a secondary, or even tertiary preferred destination for everyone else. With her interest in the town making it not just the primary, but only destination she wanted to travel to, she'd been all but guaranteed to score the trip right from the very beginning, unless Chao decided to make an identical claim or something.

It hadn't happened, and she'd cut her after-class practices short somewhat to make time packing what she would be bringing with her. Zero, of course. Partly because she would never let her live it down if she ran out of energy while Ranma was gone, and partially because she just didn't really trust the puppet not to do something that they would both regret while unsupervised. Aside from that, a few changes of clothes, that little shield pendant for further experimentation and training, and... that was actually about it. She wouldn't need access to the prodigious library, because even if her search turned up nil, she would have more than enough keeping her busy with the refinement of those ranged ki attacks, if nothing else.

Honestly, she'd probably miss some of the class a little while she was gone, although not having to restrain the urge to walk up to the front of the class and punch Negi every day would probably be a welcome relief.

And then the weekend came, and she collected her pack, ticket, and papers, and was off.

Karakura's school didn't have a dorm, being a public school. Instead, arrangements had been made for her to stay in the home of an attending student... and of all the possible people, having been given a chart with names, faces, and interests, she was pretty sure she'd lucked out.

Arisawa Tatsuki was a year older than her, and apparently quite the martial artist in her own right. It wasn't like she was desperate to meet other fighters, as there were more than a few just in 3-A, but it was nice to know that she was rooming with someone at least a little like herself. And at the very least, Tatsuki had been talented enough to size her up at the same time Ranma was eyeing her back, and realize that Ranma was a threat.

As a bonus, Ranma was also pretty sure that Tatsuki was spiritually sensitive, if the way she would occasionally stare and frown, just for the briefest moment, at Sayo had any meaning to it. Jackpot, probably. Her friend Inoue Orihime too.

Although, she wasn't entirely sure they knew much. It seemed like their ability to see the dead was a recent development, judging by the infrequent, but not uncommon, pauses to just stare for a moment at any of the towns admittedly numerous ghosts. It was a place to start, though.

Running the gamut of introductions had a whole lot of nothing, and a few leads. Tatsuki's parents, and most of her friends, had honestly no reaction to Sayo. Couldn't see her. On the other hand, a few had telling hints that they could, no matter that they were pretty minor. Sado Yasutora. Kuchiki Rukia. Kurosaki Ichigo. Ishida Uryuu. Those four could see. Sado had started to turn his head towards Sayo, before catching himself, and the other three had even more minor reactions, bare eye twitches. It was enough, though.

But at the same time, she much doubted that she was going to get any decent information from people her age, no matter how much spirit energy they might or might not have. It wouldn't do her much good to start in on a round of questions, only to figure out that all they knew was that ghosts existed, and aside from that they had just been pretending not to see them for a long time.

"Ranma?" Sayo said, interrupting her thoughts. "I have a bad feeling. It's like... we're sitting on a beach somewhere, and there's a tsunami rolling in just beyond the horizon. It's nothing concrete, just..."

"Yeah. I noticed much the same." Ranma agreed, looking up.

It was like a gloomy pall was descending over the area. There were no real words for it... just instinct, pressing at her. 'Run', it said. 'Run away. Danger coming. Run.' She took a moment and shook it off.

"Something's going to happen soon... something big. Not quite yet, though. I'll bring Zero to school tomorrow. But... what can you do?" She asked Sayo. "I haven't thought about it before. But has being a ghost given you any special skills? Moving things around like a poltergeist, or the ability to possess people?"

"Um, not that I-"

"Have you ever tried?"

Sayo was forced to admit that she actually hadn't. Ranma considered that and frowned.

"If there's lots of ghosts here... lots of people with high spirit energy... then this would be the perfect place for Hollows to show up. I'm confident in my ability to fight them off for myself... but if I'm tied up, and you can't really fight anything off by yourself, then..."

"I'm not going back." Sayo insisted. "And even if I would, it would be more dangerous leaving and trying to go by myself, than-"

"I know. That wasn't what I was saying, though, I'm just thinking aloud. If you could possess someone... or only partially possess... either way, if you were able to hide safely inside either my body or Zero's, then if something happened, I wouldn't have to worry about protecting you, because as long as we protected ourselves, you'd be fine. You see?"

"I... guess I kind of get it. But I don't know if-"

"Yeah. It might not even be possible... it's not like either of us really know too much about what we're doing, here. We're still pretty much running blind, here. But just try... if it doesn't work, I'll figure something else out."

Sayo tried it. It didn't really work the first few times, at least not as either of them had expected, and learning to _stop_ possessing someone had actually been much more of a headache, lasting well into the night, but they figured it out eventually.

Sayo was essentially a silent passenger, for the most part. They could both see what Ranma saw without problems, but that was about it. If Sayo wanted to talk, she ended up speaking with Ranma's vocal cords, and the other girl was forced into silence either until she was done or she wrested control back. If she tried to move herself at the same time Ranma was moving, it threw them off balance, especially if they were trying to go in different directions. There was no sort of mental rapport between them... Ranma could easily have become convinced that Sayo had just left instead, if it weren't for the occasional twitch of motion or soft, near inaudible grumble that she wasn't in control of. The most difficult part of it for Sayo was simply remaining still and silent, doing nothing but watch, so as to not interfere with anything Ranma tried to do, which could prove fatally hazardous if they ended up in a combat situation like this.

In short, the possession wasn't at all fun for either side of the equation, and they wouldn't be using it unless in dire need, but it worked for the purposes it was intended for.

The next day passed slowly, that strange sense of danger building and building throughout. When it reached a crescendo, all three of them were driven to look upwards from where they were waiting on top of the school, to where horrible black cracks were slowly forming in the sky itself, dozens of Hollows spewing out of each.

Without a word shared between them, Sayo faded into Ranma's body.

xxx

A.N.

Deceptive length this time, as the start-off omake make up, oh, looks like a quarter of total chapter length, maybe. Given that with my painfully complicated take-home test, two essays, one short paper, and one two-page mock-memo that I _should_ be spending this writing time working on, I'm sure you'll forgive me.

Anyway, power levels. Ranma's actually not that hot at this point. Samples as of _right now_.

Negima cast.

Vs. Evangeline- Lose. Hardcore loss. Are you joking? Taking Ranma seriously as an opponent, she's not even going to get a hit in.

Vs. Kaede- Hm. Tough fight. Both have the shundo techniques, of course. Countering that, I'm going to say that as a ninja, Kaede's a good chunk faster. On top of that, while Ranma has the yet-unnamed projectile/beam thing, Kaede can make clones, and at this point I'm going to arbitrarily say that Ranma will never figure out a technique like that. One on one... at this point I'm going to say that Kaede has to struggle a bit, but yeah, she wins. Ranma will get enough of an edge sooner or later to reverse that though.

Vs. Mana- Mana wins. Mana just wins, okay? Mana's Gun-fu is stronger.

Vs. Setsuna- Um. Huh. At this point, I'm going to say it's a coinflip. Could go either way depending on any number of factors.

Vs. Negi and Asuna combo- Ranma wins. Negi will get drastically overpowered as the series progresses, but right now he's still a shrimp, and Asuna hasn't learned/recalled much herself. Cakewalk.

Bleach cast. This is right during the start of the 'Quincy Archer' arc thing by the way.

Vs. Random hollows- one on one, Ranma wins. Three to five on one at once, Ranma wins. Twenty or thrity to one, might be tricky, but Ranma still wins. Random Hollows kind of suck.

Vs. Arrancar/Espada/Vaizards- WTFowned. They aren't entering the story yet. Just no.

Vs. Ichigo- At the moment? I'm going to say Ranma wins, with a little effort. Later on, of course, Ichigo will get ludicrously powerful, as per the norm for a shonen series, it seems, but right now he's beatable.

Vs. Random Shinigami- Ranma's win. Can you say 'Side Character Beatdown'?

Vs. Captains and Lieutenants/vice-captains- This... now this could be a problem. I'm going to say she could put up a serious fight against a vice captain, but would eventually get beaten down. Against a captain, she could put up something of a fight, but she would lose, and lose hard, before too long.

So yeah. Trying to keep her strong enough, but not too strong, if that makes any sense. She'll win some fights, lose some, and there are some fights that, if picked, would be 'LOL,INSTANT-DEATH'. Also, these fights are assumed that it's a straight up, tournament style sort of fight, with both parties in top form. It should be pointed out that once Ranma realizes she's outmatched she will have _no_ interest in continuing to fight fair, and if the sealed techniques enter the equation then that will change things a bit in her favor. If, for instance, Ranma caught Renji, for example, off guard or on a bad day and just kept hitting him as hard and as fast as she could, not giving him the opportunity to get an attack in, or even unleash shikai, then she's going to win that fight, no question.

Bankai is basically your instant 'I win' button. Ranma will figure this out. If she gets in a fight with _any_ shinigami, she will do her _damndest_ to keep that button from being pressed, and might even pull it off. If not, eh, she loses. Probably in an excruciatingly painful yet somehow nonfatal way because, you know, if she dies it's end of story time. Also, before I forget 'Shundo' is what Ranma and Negima peoples do. 'Shunpo' is what the shinigami do. Aside from that, _exactly the friggin same_. If it's used wrong somewhere, it's a typo that I missed, mentally substitute the correct letter or something.

So anyway, hope that explains some. Oh, and whoever it was that mentioned a squad of bio-roids in a review? You _rock_. I'd kinda thought myself that the thing would be a one-off deal, but hey, the idea made so much sense that I went 'You know what? She _would_ do that. So, eh, what the hell.'

Now, got's to be thinking and making decisions. Conquer a third world country? Zanpakuto/No Zanpakuto? How do I screw with the slowly forming plot next? How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if that woodchuck were Chuck Norris? Should that inverse ninja law, or whatever, hold sway? Why _did_ the chicken cross the road, if it comes to that?

Upload tomorrow, pass out now, nighty-nigaj;f


	8. Chapter 8

The windows had shattered. That's how it began.

It had been immediately blamed on the Judo club members, who had been loitering in the area. In fact, one of them had even been goofing around, and had mimed a punch to tap at the window the moment they shattered. An unfortunate coincidence that had completely panicked the young man.

She'd seen though. The glass breaking... it had been from the shockwave, where _it_ had slammed down heavily onto the building.

Unlike that first Hollow, this thing wasn't even vaguely humanoid. It was a huge mass of slimy tentacles, the only similarity to that other one being that it was wearing a mask and, presumably, had a hole somewhere about its person. Such diversity, from a single type of creature...

Ranma stared at the thing, every bit as predatorily as it was leering down at the students below. What to do now? Sure, she could just step in and finish the thing off right now...

But that was Tatsuki and Orihime down there. Now... could well be the only opportunity she had, to see this spirit energy in action.

So for now, she would sit back and watch, an avid spectator. If it looked like they were actually going to die, then she would step in to kill the monster first. Not before.

The creature lurched itself off of the building. While she'd been thinking, Tatsuki had left to change... either she couldn't see the Hollow, or just hadn't noticed it somehow. That other, the spectacled girl... she hadn't seen anything at all. It wasn't at all unexpected, when she went down to the first volley of attack.

Orihime dropped everything to go check on her classmate. In theory, a laudable idea. In practice, with the monster still standing there and leering, and the arm with a projectile still lodged in it immediately grasping hold of the other girls throat and squeezing, it was foolishness. The monster took the time to mockingly explain the body control ability... good to know. If it came to that, she just had to avoid being hit by the seeds.

She frowned, suddenly reminded of Evangeline's own mind control tactic on that first skirmish with Negi, as wounded students staggered into the area, lurching like zombies. When had the freak had the time to pull that off?

She'd almost decided to step in when Tatsuki re-arrived, thrashing the entire group, before being caught of guard and dropping her defense for just a moment as the spectacle girl entered the bout. She was immobilized by the students, and the Hollow launched one of the seeds.

Was that it? No, that couldn't be it. Surely that couldn't be it. She tuned out the Hollow's mockery as she eyed the girls. Surely, just that wasn't the extent of their power, was it? Were they, after all, merely unfortunate enough to be able to see ghosts, without any kind of ability to back them up? Tatsuki had gone limp, a seed having planted in her eye. She was going to die now, without immediate aid. Ranma would have to make her move....

No. No, that wasn't all there was to them at all, she realized with relief, as Orihime broke free. There was a flash, and a blur, and something cleaved off one of the Hollow's many tentacles.

A shield, repelling the next barrage of seeds. Some sort of healing technique, restoring Tatsuki, healing her wounds and disintegrating the lodged seeds. And a cleaving technique, extremely powerful in nature, easily at the level of the Yama techniques....

If it had hit, then Orihime would have won there and then, but the Hollow showed amazing agility for something so large. It tore itself out of the way of the attack with its tentacles, and it continued on past the Hollow, splitting apart the wall of the building behind it, from the top of the roof down into the foundation itself.

Ranma corrected herself. That thing... it was even more powerful than the Yama at its best, but dangerous in its use. If it struck the opponent, then no question, it would be a one hit kill every time. But as Orihime collapsed in exhaustion.... if it missed, as she had, then everything was done.

The Hollow was angry now, and scared. It wouldn't give her a second chance to wake up and finish it off, it was moving for the kill now. Tatsuki was stirring a little, but by the time she woke, it would be too late.

Ranma hurled Zero like a javelin, leaping down behind. It was time to finish the creature off. There was nothing left for her to learn from this fight.

xxx

Mahoranma

Ranma Makes An Impact! Fixing Peoples Problems, By Doing Horrible Things!

xxx

".... ho. Step... wouldn't?"

"Not... unconcerned... already."

"Mmm.... Orihime.... borrowing her..."

"Leaving Tatsuki.... get why?"

"She's not ready yet.... couldn't see clearly... even at the end."

"Bullshit. I'll... fine, then.... whatever. Still bringing her."

The echoing voices swirled around in Tatsuki's head, before darkness reclaimed her for a short time. When she fully awoke, it was in a panic.

"Orihime!" She yelled, sitting straight up, eyes wide.

"She's fine." Ranma answered. "She's safe. Calm down."

"What... you? Where am I?"

"You're in a safehouse. In a situation like this, its dangerous for you to go outside. That Uruhara person... I got an explanation of sorts from him. At this point, your spirit energy is strong enough to allow you to see ghosts, but not quite enough yet for you to completely see Hollows or Shinigami, without a slight blur. At the same time, it's just high enough that they can pick you out as a tasty appetizer. If Orihime hadn't been present to distract it with her own not-insignificant amount of spirit energy, then you would have been its target. Or maybe it would have sniffed me out, who knows?"

"That thing!"

"The Hollow was dealt with. I saw to it personally. Although I almost didn't need to. Your friend... she's quite powerful when she has a mind to be, although her staying power could definitely use work. What's with that look on your face? You don't believe me? Do you deny that you can see ghosts, or that you were attacked by _something_, or is it just difficult to believe that your friend is starting to grow out of the need for a protector?"

"I don't..."

"Don't think too hard about it. Like you, I don't know too much about this myself. And like you, I really have no way yet, to utilize spirit power in any real measure, other than the simple ability to see the target. Because of it, that man... while he's willing enough to hand out the bare bones of information, he doesn't seem to think you're of any use at all, yet, and he has his doubts about me, even though Zero and I have no trouble destroying simple monsters."

Ranma stared at Tatsuki, as she quivered with something barely repressed. With a grim delight, she decided to prod just a little further.

"Until I talked him out of it... he was even going to just leave you lie there, defenseless until you woke up with modified memories, while he collected the more interesting, more powerful of you two. That Orihime..."

Ranma slid gracefully to the side as Tatsuki slammed into a full throttle attack, eyes brimming with contradictory rage and tears.

"That's more like it! You've not lost your spirit, after all. Fight. Keep fighting. Prove that you aren't useless!"

"Shut up!" Tatsuki roared, her strikes becoming just a little sloppier, the anger and the exertion of going from complete rest to a full attack straining at her. Ranma slid around the attacks effortlessly, then kicked her backwards a few paces, where she landed off balance.

"Your anger makes you stronger, but you lose control. Hmph. I may have pressed you just a little too far. I'll have to deal with that before our talk continues... but it all works out."

Another attack was deflected, spun into a throw where Tatsuki landed unsteadily again.

"Let me show you something that Uruhara person hasn't seen!" Ranma barked, gathering ki into her hand and unleashing it in a beam as Tatsuki turned.

It caught her off guard, slamming her backwards into the wall, pressing her into the ground. Ranma only held it a slight moment, just enough that her clothes started to singe, and then she released the beam, allowing Tatsuki to drop to the ground and catch her breath.

"Are you ready to listen, now?" She wondered, unruffled by the brief combat. "You're good. In the martial arts circles you travel through, you're very good indeed. But what you haven't realized, is that you are still far away from my level. Every one of your kind, calling yourselves 'premier martial artists', competing in publicly viewed tournaments for no more than the prestige and a shiny trophy... you're like children aping what you've seen your parents doing, with little understanding. To normal people, you're unbelievably strong. To us, you're novices at best."

"What... was that...?" Tatsuki asked, the anger having been temporarily driven away. "Spirit energy...?"

"Hm? Didn't I just say I knew almost as little of such things as you? No. That was ki. That man, Urahara, he can't seem to detect it. Might not realize it exists. And so, he writes off my victory as a fortunate fluke, due mostly to Orihime's efforts, and yours, softening the monster up. He doesn't begin to realize that there are far, far more..."

Ranma grinned wryly.

"I seem to be rambling. But the point is, that energy, 'ki'. That is what seperates you novices, stumbling about in the dark, from the true artists of war. We use it to strengthen our bodies, to add speed to our movements, to attack, and to defend ourselves and others. A match between even one as advanced as you, and myself... it's as unfair a pairing as setting you to fight a white-belt half your age, with only the basics of form and stance grasped."

Ranma smiled and stepped forward, reaching a hand down towards Tatsuki.

"I can... teach you, if you agree. Will you accept that tutelage, Arisawa Tatsuki?"

"Why...?" She whispered.

"Any number of reasons. You have potential, that's true enough, and I'd hate to see you live your life without realizing it. You have the sort of spunk I like to see. Hm. Yes, I think it's particularly that. That man is interested in your friends. Sado. Kurosaki. Ishida. Orihime. Even now, and I don't know why, he's making similar offers to Sado and Orihime, and he'll offer to help train Kurosaki and Ishida as well, no doubt. Similarly, there's no question that while they'll think hard about it, they'll agree sooner or later. And yet... because your development of spiritual energy and powers lags just a little behind theirs, you are to be left behind. Useless to whatever his goals are. Even when and if you should awaken them, he'll likely bear you little interest, depending on how long it takes. 'Why' he will think 'should I exert the effort to bring this one up to speed, when it could be better spent on these others?'. Yes... it's that without assistance, you're going to be left behind by your friends... and you'll never catch up. I'm not a nice person, by nature... but why should I sit back and allow something like that to happen, when lending a hand doesn't really cost me anything?"

Ranma smiled down at Tatsuki, who for a moment seemed very frail and lost before she shook it off and looked up at the redhead.

"Then this is all... just out of the goodness of your heart? I don't buy that. I need to know more about your reasonings."

Ranma shrugged, a 'what can you do' look on her face.

"I suppose you have a point. It wouldn't have really been any fun if it was that easy, anyway. But yes... there's a tiny, tiny little catch. That man... doesn't seem to trust me for some reason. He'll tell me a little about spirit energy, but not much, and I need to know more... but he won't talk, unless I'm learning how to use it directly from him. And I'm afraid that I don't particularly trust him right back, and I've never been one to obediently take instruction without question or complaint. What I want, is for you to act as a go-between of sorts, letting me know what you learn from him."

"A spy." Tatsuki spat.

"Spy... that's a harsh word. I prefer to think of it that you would be sharing what you learn from Uruhara with me, in the same way that I would be sharing the secrets of ki with you. If you really aren't comfortable with that, however... it's no trouble. Perhaps, on your own, you will be able to awaken your spirit energy fast enough to still be interesting to him. You're right on the brink, you know. It just needs a little more to awaken... it could happen at any time you're in danger, or it might not happen at all, depending. If you decline, then that's that... I'll never make such an offer again, of course, and you'll simply be trusting to luck and your own abilities in the future. I'll ask you just one more time, Arisawa Tatsuki. Will you, or will you not, take this offer?"

Tatsuki bit her lip, thinking furiously for several long moments before sighing. In the end... she wanted, more than anything else, not to be left behind.

"Saotome Ranma... I'll accept, sensei." She said, reaching up to take hold of the offered hand, and feeling very much as though she'd just bartered with her soul as tender.

xxx

Tatsuki caught on very quickly to the basics of ki techniques. That was probably a good thing, because it would take Ranma several hours to doodle out another manual, and so until then, it would all be hands on instruction. The trick, though, wasn't just teaching ki, but at the same time finding a way to awaken that spiritual power, to insert her into Uruhara's group of students.

Just wanting it wasn't enough. Just needing it in a fight wasn't enough. Just being in serious danger of death... even that wasn't enough, Ranma reflected as she looked down at her collapsed and bleeding student. It was really a pain. For the past hour, she'd been running through a gamut of physical, mental, and emotional stresses, trying to trigger whatever it was that had caused, without actually killing the girl. Even extremely battered as she was, though, she'd never managed to draw out that power, and any further carried the too-real risk of complications that would screw everything up. What was Ranma missing, that had.... huh. There was an idea.

"That's it then." She decided aloud. "It looks like this idea was a bust. Oh well. I'll have to find another way to get information, though, or it'll take far too long for me to figure this stuff out on my own. Hm. Oh, I know!"

Ranma smiled happily down at Tatsuki, who was gasping for breath.

"By now, at least one of _those_ should have been prepared! I'll just use that, and replace it with one of the students. Which one should I pick, though? Hm, hm. It's a dilemma. Can't just pick willy-nilly, I have to thoroughly and carefully decide which one would be most easily replaced, and least likely to be noticed as an impostor. Hm. But I can't just have the original running loose, of course."

Ranma squatted next to Tatsuki, stroking her chin as though deep in thought.

"I see.. I see. I think I know. It would have to be that one. I'm sorry, Tatsuki... but it's become obvious that you've got some sort of block on your spirit energy. It will be... months, possibly years at this rate, before you get a hold of it. There's just no point to this. As agreed, I'll still continue to teach you about ki, if you want the lessons... but I wonder if you will? You see, instead of using you as a spy...."

Ranma smiled down at Tatsuki, who looked extremely worried, and with good cause.

"Instead... I'll just kill that Orihime, and have an impostor take her place."

"No!" Tatsuki yelled, struggling to rise.

"Oh? And... will you stop me? Can you? I can see in your eyes... 'This can't possibly be right. She's definitely bluffing. This is a trick, it has to be, to try to awaken my power out of desperation.' I'm afraid you're mistaken, Tatsuki-chan. This is no trick... it's simply your last chance."

Ranma stood.

"You see, there's no way you can do anything to stop me, as you are now. You can barely move, much less try to fight. I'd be surprised if it took you could even make your way out of this warehouse without assistance, in the condition you're in... and by that time, it'll be too late. I'll explain in detail, just for my cute little student. I'm going to leave now. I'm going to walk out that door, and then make my way directly to Orihime's house. I'll ring the doorbell there, and she'll come to see who's calling. And the moment she turns the knob... I'll _thrust_ this arm of mine through the door, and _tear_ her still beating heart from her chest. I'm sure she'll be surprised. Might not even realize what just happened to her until she looks down. I wonder... what would the expression be on her face? Or maybe I won't tear out her heart. Blood is so very messy. Maybe I'll just use my ki, and wait for her to open the door, and greet her with a smile and a steady beam of death? I'm sure that her shield could deflect it, given time to set it up, but she won't be expecting an attack in her own home, where she feels most secure."

Tatsuki was wild-eyed now, thrashing violently across the floor in an attempt to crawl after Ranma, who'd slowly walked to the door. Ranma paused there, and smiled back at Tatsuki.

"Make no mistake... I won't be happy to do such a thing. But you must understand, this is no bluff. At this stage, there are only two options. Just two. Either you awaken your spiritual powers, and stop me... or you fail to do so, and your Orihime will die as a direct consequence of your failure. There simply is no middle road. And it's not like I'm thrilled, either. This backup plan is nowhere near as elegant as I'd prefer. I would even feel... some vague regret about the girls death, I think. But then, I've made no attempt to hide the fact that I'm not a nice person, and while I would regret afterwards, there is nothing that can stop me. Nothing except you, and only under the right condition. Her fate... it's tied up in your hands and abilities now, Arisawa Tatsuki."

Ranma calmly left at a slow walk, a brief scent of night air floating in through the door before it swung closed. Tatsuki's blood was pounding in her ears, as she levered herself up with a nearby crate, sheer adrenaline forcing agony-ridden muscles and bones to be silent and move.

There was a trickle of blood rolling down her chin. As she staggered to the door, she wiped it away with the back of her hand, breaths coming in great, wrenching gasps as she leaned against it, fumbling with the handle before she finally got hold of it and forced the door open.

Nobody was out this time of night. It was a good thing, because during the daytime concerned bystanders wouldn't have given a thought after seeing her condition before they phoned an ambulance for her, and that was something that she couldn't afford now, in this race against time.

Orihime's house wasn't far from here. Just a few blocks. With her lurching shamble, she was moving faster than Ranma's lazy gait, but it wouldn't be enough, yet it had to be. Her body was screaming at her in the tongue of pain. It couldn't take much more. It was failing. It needed rest, she needed to stop.

She ignored its complaints and pressed on.

She lurched around a corner, and Ranma was just there, walking slowly up to the apartment building. No more _time_. She forced her howling body into a staggering run, putting every last ounce of her remaining will into it.

When she reached her goal, almost collapsing into an attack, Ranma swatted her aside as though she were no more than an irritating fly buzzing about her ears.

"Ah... Tatsuki, Tatsuki, Tatsuki. Don't think I'm not impressed that you forced yourself to this. In all seriousness, it's quite amazing. But I'm afraid that I was being quite honest, when I said 'there is no middle path'. It would have been better for you, if you'd simply lay quietly on the floor back there and cried. It would have been just as effective... and you wouldn't have had to watch, with your own eyes, but powerless to stop anything."

Through bleary, pain-fogged eyes, time seemed to slow from Tatsuki's perspective. Ranma turned and began again for the house. Five steps away. Four steps. Three. In one hand, a bright energy was coalescing. So much... _too much_... far more than she'd used in any of her demonstrations or in trying to coax out Tatsuki's spirit energy. To have gathered that much energy, when it was released...!

It was then, with Ranma only two steps away from the door to Orihime's apartment building, a handful of glowing death in tow, that the entirety of Tatsuki's mind and soul realized and accepted that Ranma was completely serious.

In that moment, everything became crystalline, painfully clear. This person before her wasn't an acquaintance. Wasn't a friend or ally, wasn't her sensei. This person wasn't even a person, in that moment of blinding realization. All that the thing standing before her was, was an enemy, threatening harm to Orihime, who she had to protect.

Ranma was one step away from the door, free hand extending for the buzzer to Orihime's apartment. And Tatsuki _moved_.

When she woke up, it was back in the warehouse, Ranma grinning insufferably down at her.

"Orihime!" She yelled, sitting upright, and then collapsing again immediately from the pain.

"Ah ah ah. Your Orihime is fine. I did give my word, after all. The moment you awakened your spirit energy, and attacked, she was completely safe from me. And good for you! In all honesty, I was a bit worried there, at the end, that I might actually have to go through with it."

"Then... bluffing to the end?"

"Nope." Ranma shot down. "Like I said before, if you hadn't awakened your spirit energy, I'd have killed Orihime. I didn't want to take the chance that it wouldn't work because I choked at the end. It would have been a real shame, though... nice girl like that. Most of the rest of what I said, yeah, that was a lie. Right now, there's no way I could have slipped in an impostor to Uruhara's meetings. And now that I think about it, I'd have probably brough him and the rest of them down on my head if she'd died, and I'd have had to kill them too, and probably any family they had afterwards, and then I'd get slapped with the old 'serial murderer' stick and things would just degenerate from there, which would have been a real pain. But hey... why worry about things that didn't happen, right?"

Ranma ruffled Tatsuki's hair, and the girl stared, pale and wide-eyed, once more getting the feeling that it was a soulless demon standing above her, smiling cheerfully down.

"In any case, you've awakened a usable form of your spirit energy, and that Uruhara person should be able to tell that, so getting training for it should be no problem. Be sure to learn well, alright?"

Tatsuki shivered uncontrollably.

xxx

"Hey. Wake up."

Tatsuki started from an uncomfortable slumber she had only just begun to settle into, eyes darting rapidly around the room before landing on Ranma's creepy living toy.

"About time. Make yourself comfortable, but don't fall asleep, alright? I wanna talk to you. About Master."

Tatsuki grunted and rolled over as best she could.

"What about her?"

"Eh, I just get the feeling that you're building an image of her as this absolutely horrible monster. I just want you to know another side of the story, here."

"She was going to _kill_ Orihime!" Tatsuki barked. "Just because it _might_ make me stronger! What kind of-"

"See, what you don't get here is that, by her measurements, she was actually being unreasonably kind and generous. Pipe down a bit, let me tell you what I know about Master, alright? After that... do whatever you want. Hate her as much as you want, call off the training like I know you're thinking about doing, whatever. But for now, just listen, and I'll tell you what I know, as I understand it.

I don't even know much about too long ago, but I've picked up bits and details here and there, had some connections looked into by friends. What I do know is, when he was at a very tender age, Saotome Genma set out in the world with his only son, on a voyage of martial arts training. What I've picked up is this wasn't namby-pamby foraging for nuts and berries sort of training like it would probably have started off with for anyone else, they started in at the deep end, wrestling wild bears for food or something, I dunno, the details are sketchy. But thing is, it was harsh. Now from what I've been able to pick up is that somewhere along the way, they picked up the girl sleeping in your guestroom, and she ended up learning the martial arts right alongside Genma's son... Saotome Ranma.

Now at some point, they decided to go train in China instead of Japan, no real reason found. Probably a whim. And anyway, according to a fractured report from someone who saw them set off, they swam their asses off to get there. Don't know why that either, maybe it was for more training, maybe Genma was just too cheap for boat or plane tickets, but there you have it.

Anyway, they got to China, and at some point everything went fubar. Couldn't say what, couldn't say how, Master's really tightlipped about it, but there was a capital-'C' Curse mentioned, and end result is that it's just two people coming back to Japan. Whatever happened, Genma's son hasn't been seen by anyone since. Might be dead, might not... like I said, Master's real sketchy on the exact details. Anyway, at the very least, that's when I start being able to pick up information and pictures on Master going by the name Ranma Saotome. Before that, nothing, but then, even shots of Genma or his son from that time period are really few and far between, so if she spent all her time at camps, away from other people or whatnot, it's understandable.

I guess that she might have gone by a different name before then. Or not. Given what I know of Genma, he and his son could well have not bothered to call her anything but 'girl' or 'hey, you'. Not much better than some nameless alley rat, which is Genma's story on where she came from. Master herself doesn't have anything to say about it.

But around that time, Genma just can't stand to so much as look at her anymore. Real woman-hater that one. I guess without his son to run interference... meh, whatever. Her taking his name could have made things better or worse, I don't know. But either way, he gets rid of her. Makes arrangements for her education, sets up a little allowance, and in every other respect the only other person she's ever known just completely abandons her. Kinda worse than if he'd just taken off in the middle of the night, in some ways, because he makes no bones about the fact that he never wants to see her again.

Now, her grades just getting into school are rock-bottom, of course. She doesn't know anything about _anything_. I've checked it all up in records and almost literally, the only things master knows how to do at this point are fight, and make camp food. It's not like she can cover for the weakness by making a bunch of friends, either, because unless beating the piss out of someone's involved, she has _no_ idea how to relate to people. She's been starting to get the hang of it, more recently, but it was _bad_ with her first couple of classes.

She got bounced around a few classrooms, and ended up building up kind of an accidental reputation as an 'Ice Queen'. The whole school knew about it, and so eventually people stopped trying to approach her at all. And hey... from her point of view, that was probably slightly better than ending up making a fool of herself whenever people tried to talk to her, and so she decided to go ahead and cultivate that image. Still got shuffled around a bit before she was settled into her current class.

This is important, though. Her first serious semester of school, she was scraping at the bottom of the barrel, grade-wise. Her second, she's barely average, and through her third, she claws her way up to one of the top scorers, exhausting herself enough doing it that on seven seperate occasions the teachers had to step in and require that she actually sleep every now and again.

That's probably the point I was trying to make. Master... she's referred to it herself, but she's literally crazy obsessive about her need to be as perfect as possible at anything and everything she turns her hand to. And now she's figured out about this spirit energy stuff and, for her own reasons, feels that she needs to be able to use it. What I'm saying is... you think she's been hard on you? She will _destroy_ herself trying to master this stuff, if given half a chance.

Your training, too. You think she's harsh? Can't get her to talk about much of her past, but I managed to drag some details of Genma's training out of her, on a couple occasions. Let me line it out for you. She gave you the occasional break while she brainstormed. She was nice, pretty polite even, when she chided you. She warned you before hand what you would be doing and, except the last thing, gave you the option of whether you wanted to continue, to see if this time it would work. And even the end thing... it may sound horrible to you, but she was as gentle as she could be with the idea. If Genma had been the one in charge, there would have been none of that, and for the last gambit he would have not just broken, but _shattered_ every bone in your legs to make damn sure you weren't walking out of there, _then _just said something like 'Worthless. For wasting my time, I'll be killing your friend now', or something along those lines, leaving you to work out what he was trying to do rather than outlining it in detail for you. And then, yeah, because you probably wouldn't have awakened your spiritual powers even then, he woul have carted her body back to smack you with or something, and decided to call it all off on top of that due to 'female uselessness' or some other ridiculous cop-out.

So yeah. You're thinking of Master like she's a horrible, sociopathic, homicidal monster, and she's not. Not completely. Not usually. Not all the time, anyway. Okay, so sometimes she is, but the point I'm trying to make here is that she has good reason for being crazy, and she's _trying_ to keep a lid on it as much as possible. Can't figure out why, but she likes you. Cried herself to sleep over having to push so hard in your training."

"What? R-really?" Tatsuki stammered in surprise.

"Hell no." Zero shot down instantly. "That was an exaggeration. She mentioned that she kind of regretted doing it a little, though, and for her that's like great sobbing wails and clothes-ripping of remorse, though. One more thing I will say, though. Unlocking spirit energy... Ranma's decided that it has to do with 'protecting' someone important. She just hopes that she can substitute it for something else... see, she's never had anyone she wanted to protect. Closest thing... it's probably that ghost, and only because she's pretty much useless in a fight... and it's less 'I want to protect you' and more 'hey, why not hang out inside my body for a while instead of outside, so I don't have to worry about you getting your ass bit off while I'm punching out monsters, alright?'. Not quite the same. I think she envies you a little, because of that... if the trigger can't be substituted, she may not be able to unlock that power herself at all, and she'd flip. Anyway, I've said my piece. Think about it, ignore it, whatever. I'm gonna head back to your guest room myself. Night time is boring, if Master just sleeps..."

Tatsuki stared at the ceiling for a while after the puppet left, lost in thought. It was a sad story, she had to admit, and it sounded like Ranma had been through a lot. There was a good chunk of here that was overwhelmed with sympathy for her. That chunk was warring with the rest of her, which had only latched onto the bit close to the end, where Zero had insisted that Ranma wasn't _always_ a murderous madwoman, and was duly soaking in a bath of paranoid anxiety. A return to slumber would be long in coming.

Down the hall, Ranma was sitting up in bed, and recieved a cheerful wave from Zero as she toddled in.

"Just like you said, Master. Ad-libbed a little, here and there, but the bits you had me memorize were all there."

"Good. I'm sure, then, that she'll be... properly motivated to learn now, and report back with the details."

xxx

"I'm sorry, but circumstances have changed. I really don't have the manpower anymore, to train anyone else."

"What! Why?" Tatsuki barked back at Urahara.

This was bad. Very bad. Tatsuki could just see Ranma's response to the new situation.

'There's no more room for new people? No problem! I'll just kill one of them, and then there'll be a free slot for you, no sweat!' the imaginary demon-sensei chirped. Tatsuki shivered imperceptively.

"What could have changed, between yesterday and-"

"Last night, Kuchiki Rukia was kidnapped. I'm sure you noticed that she didn't attend school today, and nobody seems to recall she was ever there. At the same time, her kidnappers significantly damaged Kurosaki Ichigo's source of spiritual power. Kurosaki's healing and re-training is a very delicate process... almost all of my available cohorts are having to pitch in to help on that, and there's no time for us to do anything else at the moment. There's only one of my assistants left, and Yoruichi already has already left with those others, so unless you can track them down, or track Ishida down before they find him..."

'You see? I'll just kill Ichigo, then there'll be lots of teachers available. Problem solved!' the redhead chirped, giving an imaginary thumbs-up.

The worst thing was that the excuse was actually pretty reasonable, as far as she could tell. He wasn't just brushing her off because he'd changed his mind, or or whatever. There had just been a serious upheaval, and he simply couldn't come through anymore.

It was still a bad thing, especially as he explained that this Yoruichi was extremely accomplished at not being found, even and especially by people who were exceptionally good at, and/or had supernatural means of finding things. If she tried to chase the group down, it would end up being completely up to luck.

She dropped to her knees, then slowly placed her palms on the floor, going a final, desperate route.

"Please, Urahara-san." She said, gaze firmly on the ground. "Even one on one training... it can be put off, but... do you have manuals, or scrolls, or study notes, or anything of that nature? I have to learn this. If Orihime's going into danger... I can't be left behind! After having to go so far just to unlock this power for the first time.... If there's anything at all that can help me learn..."

Urahara calmly stood, frowning down.

"Don't... grovel like that. I never said I couldn't help. I just said I couldn't train you. If you're learning on your own, that's another story altogether. A pretty dangerous story, really, but you seem set on it. Alright. I'll get my old notes out for you, from when I was just learning how to control spirit energy myself, alongside Yoruichi. They're pretty old, but I wrote them on special paper, so they should still be in good enough condition to read. But what would Inoue think, if she saw you begging like this?"

Despite the chiding, Tatsuki left the store with a sense of great relief, the thick notebook clutched protectively to her chest.

xxx

A.N.

Yes. I likes me some Tatsuki.

Playing seriously fast and loose with the Bleach timeline here. I don't know if it's a few days or a week or whatever in between the Hollow Bait thing and Rukia's kidnapping, but here they happened back to back, same span of 24 hours. Also, it's supposed to be near summer vacation or something, and I think there was maybe a day or two in between the kidnapping and the training starting, but, you know, screw it. I just don't care enough to try to synchronize dates and timelines and give myself a headache in something I'm supposed to be doing for my own amusement, so yeah. Same general order of events, just that I'm screwing around with exactly when they happened.

Still haven't decided on Ranma's spirit power. Or, for that matter, Tatsuki's, as you may have noted from it not being actually defined in-chapter. Also, Sayo was somewhere doing something while all this happened, haven't yet worked out why she's not a Hollow yet (leaning towards 'A Wizard Did It'), but hey! Zero got a significant speaking role. Shame it's no more than to manipulate someone with a carefully spun web of partial truth and lies, but what can you do?

And a quick definition of 'dead' for with the bleach stuff.

Ghost- Undead, not-dead, something. It doesn't count.

Hollow- Not quite dead enough.

Shinigami- Not exactly dead. Dead-ish, though.

Reincarnated- Not Ranma anymore, so technically dead.

Soul digested/otherwise destroyed- Dead.

Basically, if you're dead but you can come back, it doesn't count. That's what I meant with the whole 'dead means end of story' thing, just didn't clarify it or something. I keep forgetting that, yes, Soul society is technically made up entirely of _dead people_, because to me the whole moving and talking thing equals 'not dead'. Or, you know, 'not dead _enough_', something like that. Whatever.

Some out of body experiences may be in store, though. Who knows?


	9. Chapter 9

Ranma was distracted from her thoughts by a cheery, upbeat pop tune springing into existence, echoing dimly around the room. With a frown, she stood up and began digging through her clothes, eventually finding the source.

"That's weird." She mumbled, eying the tiny object dubiously. "I don't remember. Since when do I have one of these?"

After another long moment of peppy noise, Ranma flipped the cell phone open and answered it.

"Yo. Oh, it's you. I might have known."

Ranma sighed and sat back down, groaning near inaudably.

"Yeah, of course I'm not on campus. What, you're only now figuring this out? I'm disappointed."

Ranma frowned at the voice on the other line.

"Skipping, what? What gave you that idea? Do I look like a delinquent to you? Don't answer that."

Ranma sighed at the sharp tone of the reply.

"Geeze. Look, it's called an 'exchange program', all right? I'll be back soon enough, so you'll just have to deal with it. Have someone else take care of whatever whim happened to cross your fancy."

Ranma flinched and held the phone away for a second, rubbing at her ear, before gingerly setting it back.

"Hey, I'm not obligated to discuss every last little thing I decide to do with you beforehand, okay? You'll have to get over it. I'll be back when I'm back."

Without another word, and despite the vague sense that she would most likely be made to suffer for it later, Ranma hung up the call and put the cell on silent, then stuffed it back in the clothes with a grimace.

"Insufferable vampire..."

xxx

Mahoranma

xxx

When it came right down to it, the notes Tatsuki had been given could almost be considered as bad as having been given no help at all. Ranma had thumbed through it several times, recieving only a headache for her trouble.

Most of it was written in a sort of devil-spawned shorthand that the reader had to pick apart and decode before they could actually get anywhere, what was written down was generally vague and ambivalent, and it had a tendency to ramble and digress occasionally into the most almost-nonsensical trains of thought.

As such, for the most part, it was the barest starting point, and until Urahara could make the time to explain just what the _hell_ he was talking about in most of it, the better part of it was going to be completely useless. She'd have to work it out on her own, if she didn't want to wait.

It did confirm, though, that spirit energy, when in sufficient amounts to actually be useful, usually awakened from the desire to 'protect'. However, it wasn't limited to protecting a specific person, instead simply being whatever the person awakening it had the most desire to protect at the time, wheter that was a person or a thing, or even something more nebulous like 'reputation'. Or something like that, anyway. It was entirely possible that they were reading it wrong, but for the moment it was their best guess as to the matter. And so, Tatsuki had been able to re-activate and de-activate her newfound powers a few times.

That was all well and good, but now Ranma wanted her turn. There was just one, unfortunate snag in the plan, though. No matter how hard she wracked her brain, she couldn't think of a single thing that she would go so far as Tatsuki had to _protect_. Plenty of stuff that she would pave a road of bones to _destroy_, but that didn't seem to qualify.

After some time spent trying to force an awakening of spirit powers anyway, Ranma eventually set it aside for a little while, as something to be returned to later.

The next bit they managed to work out regarded the 'soul'. Apparently, there were a lot of ways to build up spirit energy. The fastest, however, was simply to use it. An example was given with near-death 'out of body' experiences, explaining that while outside the body, the soul was put under a great deal of stress from all surroundings and, like a used muscle, it would grow rapidly stronger under such conditions. To a point, anyway. A note had been made that many shinigami recruits were people who'd had a near death experience or two when they were alive, and Ranma wasn't entirely sure what to make of that, but went ahead with the idea.

Urahara had even had the kindness to diagram the creation of a seal that would expel spiritual bodies from the more mundane ones they occupied, and a chanting not-quite-magic-spell thingy that would apparently put them back in if they couldn't figure out how to do it on their own or something. The explanation got really difficult to follow, at points.

Still, even if she couldn't put it to any real use as yet, building up more of this spiritual power seemed to just be the sensible thing to do. And while the making of such an intricate seal would have taken days, at best, and might well not have proven at all possible without deeper understanding and use of spirit energy, a very ragged and frayed glove that just happened to have it emblazoned on the palm had been used to mark a page much closer to the back of the thick notebook and apparently forgotten.

Neither Ranma nor Tatsuki could be anything but deeply suspicious of the unexpected good fortune, but Ranma eventually came to the conclusion that, what the hell, it beat jumping headfirst into traffic and hoping for the best, or any of the other engineered near-death situations she had thought up. It would be an interesting experiment.

She volunteered to be removed from her body first, and Tatsuki was more than eager to take the free chance to smack her one without any actual repercussions.

xxx

She was still female, was the first thing that Ranma noticed about being disembodied. Really, she wasn't sure whether that fact made total sense or made her want to scream with disgusted rage. Apparently, the soul mimicked the state of the body, and not one's mental self-image, or something equally philosophical and frustrating.

Bitterly cursing magic once more, Ranma catologued the rest of it. The air seemed heavy, almost as though she was at the bottom of a massive vat of some thick, heavy pudding, and had weights tied to her torso and every segment of every limb. Uncomfortably like that. In fact, it was almost exactly like that, save that she could actually breathe.

Bitterly cursing Genma and his more creative training methods once more, Ranma continued taking mental notes. Her body didn't seem to be quite stable, flickering in and out of tangibility and/or visibility every now and then, although it was rapidly correcting itself, and she suspected that it would be less than a minute before she remained fully 'there'. Probably something to do with technically low levels of spirit energy when attempting this, or something. She'd have to make a note of it.

Aside from that, there was the slightly wierd sensory perception. Everything was _just_ a hair off what it should be, what she expected it to be. If she wasn't so aware of herself and her surroundings, she would probably not have noticed at all.

And then there was the chain.

"What is this?" She mused, taking it in her hand, biting back a surprised gasp at the sharp pain the action brought.

"A chain? I don't understand. It hurts. Why does it hurt? Why...." She mused aloud, eyeing first the base where the chain was set into her chest, over her heart, then following the trail of not-metal links to where they disappeared into her body, settled prone against a tree.

"Why do I want, so much... to just break it?" Ranma wondered, absentmindedly taking hold of the chain with a second hand, fascinated as she began to pull sharply apart...

"No, don't!" Tatsuki barked, starting forward, not entirely sure about the whole chain thing herself, but pretty sure that destroying it was a bad idea.

She was too late, though. With a screeching crack, the not-metal gave way, and was torn asunder. In that moment, Ranma's eyes went glassy and blank, and after only another dread-filled breath's time, her entire body went limp, toppling to the ground.

Tatsuki watched in surprised horror as the damaged link, the one furthest from Ranma's chest, became a set of gnashing jaws, filled with sharp, grinding teeth and a terrible horny, pointed tongue. With insatiable hunger, it turned upon and devoured itself, leaving behind only a memory of the horrific image and a tiny, thin slice bitten out of the next link upwards.

In a matter of seconds, that second link followed the terrible lead of the first. Tatsuki couldn't do anything but stumble backwards at the sight of it, and then count the links between the ruined end and the plate set into Ranma's motionless chest.

By her count and calculation, there was perhaps ten minutes at best before the devouring links reached Ranma's body, and while she didn't know quite what would happen when they finally made it that far, some instinctive part of her was screaming dire warnings about it.

xxx

For Ranma, the world had gone white when the chain split. A simple, blinding flash of dazzling light, before the brilliance slowly faded.

When it cleared, she was in a different place entirely.

It looked as though, once, it may have been a fertile grassland, stretching out forever in every direction. Before, of course, the horrible, scouring fire had set in, leaving the whole area a still-smoldering, ruined wreck of what it once was.

There was a gentle chime, and she looked upwards, and almost regretted doing so. While the surroundings below could be considered vaguely natural, the sky above could not.

There was no sky. It was a tangled mess of pipes and loose wiring, interconnected and propping up an enormously huge glass globe. Inside the globe were perhaps a dozen arms, which had begun to spin wildly around at the sound of the chime. After a moment, they came to rest.

The burnt out husk of a grassland was torn asunder, black iron spires jerking out of the ground, a steady forest of giant metal trees growing rapidly as the earth opened, magma bubbling out and spreading across the ground. Ranma immediately took to the psuedo-trees, being rather attached to her feet, which had carried her through many a trial.

With the increased height, she got a slightly closer look at the globe above, and after a moment realized that it wasn't actually a globe at all. Its surface was faceted, perhaps hundreds of thousants of flat planes, or more, bound together to create a convincing fascimile of a sphere. Each of the arms within had come to a stop, pointing perfectly at the dead center of an apparently randomly selected facet. She quickly put together that that thing, then, had something to do with the sudden landscape shift, and the hypothesis was confirmed when, after another chime, a single arm moved and a torrent of snow began, somehow lingering in the branches of the trees, but sizzling out of existence when it dropped to close to the molten stone beneath.

"What is this place?" Ranma wondered, in a dazed mixture of confusion and awe.

"It's your inner world, fool." Came a throaty, answering growl.

Ranma turned to eye the speaker, and was vaguely impressed. The woman had an _excellent_ body, and her face was attractive to the eye, and she had the temerity to wander about in the nude. This was tempered somewhat by being three feet tall and the thick, matted and mud-and-bloodstained coat of red-gold fur that covered every inch of her skin, a mouth full of fangs, sort-of-hands with jagged claws, legs that became animalistic partway down and ended in sort-of-feet with those same claws, vines and tiny skulls tangled into a mess of shaggy hair, tentacles out of her shoulders and down her back, and the _tail_. A long, furry, whiplike tail that ended in a cruel barb.

In short, she looked like something out of some twisted degenerate's most vivid erotic nightmares, given life. Alien, and somehow Ranma felt herself both repulsed and attracted by the figure at once. Her eyes were gold. Not just simply the iris, or even a feline sort of eye, simply a solid block of color, as though two orbs of actual gold had been set in the sockets.

"Inner... world?" Ranma wondered.

"Can you say it doesn't fit you?" Was the question growled right back. Ranma suspected at this point that the she-thing's only mode of communication was growling.

"Heh. I suppose not. Actually, I kind of like it. It certainly keeps you on your toes."

Further conversation was derailed for a short time as another chime and motion unleashed a cloud of small birds with razor-edged feathers and beaks, forcing Ranma to have to insist rather violently that this particular tree was currently occupied, and that the little flying chainsaws could find somewhere else, it wasn't like there was a shortage.

"So anyway. If this is my 'Inner world'... who are you, and why are you here?"

"I am how your soul views its power." The statement relieved Ranma a little, as there were far worse things the she-creature could have been a representation of, and she'd honestly begun to worry that the degenerate might just be herself. "And my name? You want to know? It's -." The other growled, stretching animalistically across a not-branch.

Ranma was fairly sure that there had been another word to that sentence, but it had been lost in an awful cacophony. Like fingernails on a blackboard, the shattering of glass, and a horribly shrill and flat musical note, all at once.

"You can't hear it. As expected." The other growled. Somehow, though, there was a note of disappointment in the statement.

"Ah... I don't understand." Ranma admitted. "What's happening, how I ended up here, none of it. I was just trying to-"

"A headlong rush into the unknown for the sake of knowledge, and you found yourself plummeting into a deep chasm." The other growled. "It's not unexpected for a spirit, the first time they leave their body, to be siezed with the mad desire to break the chain of fate tying them to life. Few, though, have the will or strength to actually go through with it. It's your misfortune that you had both."

"Then I broke it? And came..."

"The corrosion is spreading unnaturally fast." The other interrupted, looking concerned. "I had to draw you in myself, before it was too late. What normally takes a span of years, is happening in mere minutes. The inner world... it's already beginning to collapse. You're running out of time."

There was a sort of rumbling, screechy noise from above, and when she looked up, there was a hole in the psuedo-sky, pieces somehow crumbling into ordinary small boxes as they fell.

"You can only find your spiritual power after the collapse has already begun. But hurry! Your time is limited. If you can't find me, before the collapse is complete... you will become no more than a mindless, rampaging hollow, and your life will come to an end as the shinigami put you down."

The ground gave way, as that giant orb above came loose from its moorings and began a slow tumble downwards, everything fading to blackness and boxes and the Other.

There were millions of them, and Ranma flinched as an image of her spiritual body outside was revealed, for just the barest of moments. A ragged hole had blown through her chest, where the chain had been set, and a grinning white mask was nearly fully formed over her own face, locked into a silent scream.

This was impossible. Just running from one box to the next, praying for a stroke of luck to lead her to the correct one... it was impossible, a fools errand, the odds were astronomical. And so, like any good practitioner of her family school, she cheated, calling up her ki with only a little effort.

"If you're the representation of that power I need to find... then it stands to reason, that the box I'm looking for.... it has to be the only one that feels identical to you!"

The gathered ki exploded outwards, rushing in every direction to fill the wide, empty space. Ranma kept her focus on the Other, taking in every detail of the image her ki-senses were giving her, and discarding hundreds upon hundreds of boxes in the same time it would have taken to physically check just one. But time was still running out, and if she didn't find a match soon... there! Just there, a box that resonated perfectly with the Other's signature. That was the one. She broke into a sprint, and ended with a running leap to tackle the box.

And then.... everything went dark. Outside, her spiritual body... the process had completed. She was a Hollow, in the form of some great, skeletal cat, a feline skull serving as a mask. The box seemed to take the consistency of slushy water, slithering out of her arms.

**"No. NO!"** She roared, echoed by the Hollow outside, the last vestiges of herself not having yet been scoured away. She gathered her ki and somehow, she couldn't begin to imagine how, she forced the box to re-solidify.

Her sense of sight was weird, now. Distorted, and layered. There was what the Hollow saw outside, and then there was her inner world, dim, only barely still in existence and only through sheer force of will, but fading fast. She wrenched the box open, feeling the edges of it slash at her palms and body like razor-sharp ice, and groped near-blindly inside.

**"This has not happened. This **_**will not be**_**. I am Ranma Saotome. I will not lose myself to... to such amateur **_**bullshit**_** as turning myself into a monster in a failed experiment. This is **_**my**_** body, **_**my**_** mind, **_**my**_** soul, **_**I am God here!**_** I... Will... Not!"**

She seized hold of something oblong. Her best guess and hope was that it was the hilt of a weapon of some kind.

"You've found it." Came the faint growl of the Other, her body slowly dissolving into ash. "And somehow... even now, it's still not too late yet. Hurry! Pull me out, or we'll both...!"

**"RAAAAGH!"**

The blade had been stuck in something, as though unseen hands were gripping it from inside. With a savage wrench, she tore it entirely free, and the inner world seemed to collapse for good.

As she awoke in the real world, she could feel her spiritual body almost writhing as it re-arranged itself, the gaping hole in her chest sealing over, her body becoming human once more. The mask was still there, though, and it was starting to restrict her breathing somehow. There was something in her hand. Without a thought, she smashed it into the mask, splitting it apart, and tore the thing free to take great heaving gasps of air. The thing in her hand... it had been a zanpakuto.

_'Can you hear it now, I wonder?'_ The growling voice seemed to echo. _'My name. It's -... you still can't hear it. Shame.'_

Ranma pushed the thought aside and looked at the isolated lot they'd used for this test. It was wrecked... she'd apparently gone postal, as a Hollow. Tatsuki had been battered, was still smoking actually, from the use of her power, and Ishida had apparently showed up at some point. He was still aiming an arrow made entirely of spirit energy at her skull, deepest suspicion present in his eyes. Crap. Time to wing it and hope for the best.

"Pathetic." She spat, stretching her neck idly. "Such an unexpected thing. It's certainly something _I_ would have made note of as a possibility, were I Urahara."

"I'm pretty sure he was just pretty sure neither of us were dumb enough to deliberately snap the chains tying us to our bodies, actually. Or at least that I was, because I didn't mention you were involved, though he might have guessed." Tatsuki countered.

"On the one hand, good point. On the other _shut up_. Hmph. It was an unexpected assault, and it took longer than expected to retaliate against it, but in the end... _my_ hatred was _infinitely _stronger than that of that... slavering, mindless beast."

Ishida allowed the point of the arrow to droop away a little bit, as he relaxed marginally. Wary, but not exactly hostile.

"Tch." He grunted. "I turned down Yoruichi's invitation in order to train alone, but then before I could even start I sensed something strange going on. I don't know how you turned yourself into a Hollow, or how you turned yourself back, or got a zanpakuto, but you're exceedingly fortunate that I didn't manage to hit any lethal points while you were in between A and B. If I were you, I wouldn't attempt any such foolish stunts again."

"Yeah, yeah. All worked out for the best, didn't it? Huh?"

Ranma paused and stumbled to her knees.

"Urk... my spirit energy is starting to run dry, I think. I need to go back in."

"Without a chain of fate, that will be difficult, as-_how are you doing that!?_" Ishida finished in a bark, as Ranma simply stumbled into her body, in one of the few unmarred patches of land, and slid into it, like putting on a cast-off robe.

"Eh?" Ranma wondered, stumbling to her feet, noting that the zanpakuto sword-thing was sitting on the ground next to her. She picked it up and eyed it with some vague distaste before tying it into a makeshift holster. It seemed that the blade, and that other, would be critical for her spirit powers.

She was hungry. She frowned at that realization, and a further one immediately after. She wanted...

"Don't just ignore me!" Ishida barked, pointing at her. "The moment the chain of fate is severed, the body dies! So how did you just take it back up as though it were still-"

"My body, dead?" Ranma wondered, then checked her pulse and vitals. "No... no, I'm still alive. Pretty stiff from just leaving it on the ground like that, and a little damp, but otherwise fine. I don't get what you're trying to say."

"This isn't possible!" Ishida insisted. "It's one of the most basic points of the matter, once the chain breaks, you're dead!"

"Oh... I didn't know that. I guess that explains why I'm not, a little."

"Don't just brush off your logical impossibilities so easily!"

"I'm gonna go get a bite to eat. Breaking the fundamental laws of reality works up an appetite. You want me to bring you something, Tatsuki?"

"Aaargh!"

As amusing as pressing the young man's buttons was, though, there was a minor, nagging question to be answered. When she'd noticed she was hungry, a second item of note had been clearly recognized. But why....?

Why was it, that Tatsuki and Ishida had suddenly looked so very delicious?

xxx

"Ahah. I hate to say it, but I envy Tatsuki a little." Ranma admitted that night to Sayo, perched on the roof of Tatsuki's house. "To go so far, and have this new power be inextricably bound to a weapon. Part of my soul, or reflection or impression or whatever it is, just having to rely on a weapon rankles some. Man... what would pops say about this?"

She wondered silently about that for a moment, getting a sense of distaste from the sword somehow.

"Eh. Fuck him anyway. I'm not particularly focused on sword skills, but if I deteriorate to the point that I'm depending on her, and she gets taken away from me somehow, then I'll deserve to die like a moron. Isn't that right?"

"Um... I wouldn't know..." Sayo demurred, but Ranma shook her off.

"Nah. Not you. I was talking to our guest..."

Without a word spoken, it shambled out of the shadows at the other corner of the roof. It took a moment of study, but Ranma quickly figured out what it was. That horrible thing... it had once been one of the mindless clones that Fran had mentioned she would be creating. Had it escaped captivity...?

No. She should be so lucky. The Muramasa and its scabbard, clutched tightly in opposing hands of the monstrosity, heavily indicated that its arrival was nothing like mere random chance.

"Pitiful being. Created on a whim to serve merely as fodder for experimentation, and now controlled utterly by the blade in your hand. A servant beast, having never been, and never to be anything more. Sayo, keep back. That blade bears a powerful curse. I'm not sure what might happen, if you were cut by it."

"R-right." Sayo mumbled, floating up and away, well out of range of the two if... no, when a fight started. The thing hissed softly, allowing a long, ropy tongue to loll out of its now gaping pit of a mouth.

"Disgusting." Ranma chided. "Your mere existence makes me nauseous, and seeing you in the flesh is enough to leave my guts roiling. Though as much as I'd like to set the blame for having to look upon something so foul, which once bore the face of perfection, at her door, the sword in your hands leaves me at the least equally at fault. No matter."

Ranma frowned as she started to settle into a stance, then drew the zanpakuto.

"It occurs to me that any number of foul things may have been designed into your very skin and blood." Ranma mused. "You'll excuse me, but I'm not at all interested in touching you, and contracting some sort of horrible disease, or poison. It seems she's useful after all..."

Muramasa surged to the attack. It only took a moment for Ranma to realize that this fight was going to be nothing like the one before. For whatever reason, the blade seemed intent on her death. Compounding that, its current puppet held many advantages over the previous one, such that the sword's own subtle tweaks and additions were almost impossible to separate from the horrible things that had been part of the design from the beginning.

The sword itself was actually rather simple to avoid or deflect. The flailing, grasping... limbs, possibly, were not quite so easily dealt with, and the snapping thrusts of the thing's horrible tongues would come dangerously close to impaling her vitals whenever they were employed. Ranma descended to liberal use of shundo after the first pass.

The biggest problem, however, seemed to be that the creatures own regeneration rate, and that granted it by the sword, had compounded somehow and formed something many times greater than the simple sum of their parts. Even when she could take the opportunity to cleave one of the squidlike maybe-arms from the things body, it would shrivel and writhe in midair, crumbling to dust when it hit the ground, and a bud would sprout from the stump. Within seconds, that bud would sprout, surging outwards into a new limb, coated with some sort of vile sludge.

After a minute of the fruitless hacking, Ranma began a slow retreat, not sure yet how she was going to kill the thing, but at least wanting to move the fight to someplace where people were less likely to get dragged into things.

_'If only you could hear my name...'_ the Other moped _'This pest would stand no chance. As it is, this is an unfortunately difficult battle.'_

"Save it, princess." Ranma shot back. "Instead, is there anything you can actually do to help right now?"

_'Ah... until you can hear my name, my powers are unfortunately limited. The only thing I can truly do, aside from the obvious, is to draw you into your inner world.'_

"Alright. Can you draw _others_ in there, too?"

The Other was silent for a long few moments, considering the question.

_'It isn't impossible.'_ She decided, eventually._ 'An unexpected tactic, to be sure. Simply changing the battleground once wouldn't have much effect, but most inner worlds are idyllic meadows or empty, snowing towns, or nonsense like that. With yours, depending on luck, it could be a brutal tactic, if you don't mind the horrendous invasion of privacy.'_

"Hey, life or death battle happening here." Ranma said, dodging a lethal tongue-impalement. "Privacy can go to hell. It's not like I plan on letting this thing survive, anyway."

_'Very well, then. Simply get me in contact with the creature, and I shall do the rest.'_

"I like this plan!" Ranma declared, landing in an empty lot and spinning to an immediate attack, slashing deep into the main bulk of the thing wearing a mockery of her face.

The world went white, and warped.

Ironically enough, the current state of Ranma's inner world was that empty, snowed up hamlet the Other had referenced, extending forever. She glowered at the sight and, almost in response, a chime came and burning stones began to appear in the sky and shoot down haphazardly.

"That's much better. In any case, you seem confused, aberration. Or blade. Whichever of the two of you is more in control of that putrescent lump of flesh. Welcome... to my Inner World. And in the same breath, goodbye."

A meteor slammed directly into the creature, ripping off and burning a good chunk of its anatomy, and sending the sheath of the demon sword whirling away. Ranma broke out in laughter.

"I begin to understand. This is _my_ realm, and I am king here. I can, at any time, force a change in the surroundings through sheer force of will... but my order is not yet absolute, it seems. If it were, this precipitation of stone and fire would specifically target your disgusting bulk, and I would be able to impose my will on which change is selected, rather than being forced to rely on random chance."

Demonstrating, she waved an arm, silently _demanding_ that ths chime sound again, and was answered with the tone, and bony arms ripping free of the earth in an uprising of skeletal warriors. Prudently, Ranma leapt to the roof of one of the as-yet unruined cottages, not desiring to waste energy and leaving only one target for the implacable, unfocused bloodlust of the undead.

"You see?" Ranma said, as the horde converged and fell upon the aberration, which struck back as best it could but was slowly being overwhelmed with sheer numbers. "An undead army, that doesn't even seem to be under my command? Why in the world would I have selected that, when any number of more practical options might be available to me? A gout of magma, or a sudden flood of acid, or even simply dropping you into a deep, dark hole and filling it with things every bit as horrible as yourself, or worse? Ah, such a shame. King, but not yet God of the realm, it seems. And that alone, it seems, is not yet enough to dispose of even an insect such as yourself without more effort on my part."

She slowly unsheathed her blade, as the thing below gained a renewed surge of strength and smashed its way free of the horde, tearing bones and decayed flesh apart, a howling whirlwhind of rage and steel and powerful limbs.

"Don't bother." The Other growled, having arrived at some point.

"Ah. Do you wish to finish this thing off yourself?"

"Not I." She denied. "But it dies now, nevertheless."

There was a wordless blur of motion, a streak of grey _something_ passing through the remnant of the skeletal horde as though it had never been, and striking deep and fast into the enemy. The figure slowed just enough to be clearly visible as it laid into the abomination, using claws and organic blades of its own, its sword, energy attacks, and its own teeth to eviscerate the thing in an orgy of senseless brutality and havoc that, for the merest moment, left Ranma speechless at the seemingly utter lack of any sort of control or thought towards the safety of the attacking figure.

There was no hint of defense, or care for the thoughts of onlookers to the fight, or the slightest hesitation before even forbidden techniques were employed to sate the bloodlust of the newcomer. It was a savage display, and she made not even the slightest attempt to hide her primal joy in the bloodshed, and the rapid destruction of what had been a powerful foe. It left Ranma brutally reminded that, while pretenses of nobility and the protection of bystanders was all well and good, in a serious battle it was the one that hit hardest, fought dirtiest, and didn't let up for even a moment that would walk away the survivor.

She couldn't help but wonder if, perhaps, she had thought to cast away her own restraints and misgivings and hesitation to do anything that might draw onlookers to what she'd intended to keep a private affair, then when the battle had begun, she would have taken the victory from the aberration as easily as the newcomer. For as the abberation collapsed into piles of shredded meat, blasted apart one final time, and the newcomer hurled Muramasa away with all her strength, it was glaringly obvious that she was looking down upon herself.

"All hail the lady King, master of the realm and all within." her blood-spattered and soaked reflection drawled, lowering herself to a single knee, arms spread wide in a leering mockery of worship and subservience.

Ranma allowed a single eyebrow to rise.

xxx

Her reflection was pale. Not in the sense that she was not accurate, but in the less figurative and more literal sense of coloration. In all other physical respects she was near identical, as though she were simply Ranma, had she been born an albino. Save the curious black and golden eyes, at least.

In many other respects, the two were very different. Restraint of any sort, any sense of subtlety, tact, inhibitions, innumerable other small details. It was as though the reflection was all of her deepest, darkest parts, that which she was when she brooded upon magical misfortunes, but carefully hid away at all other times, given form and life. She had learned to pass among normal students, to allow numerous, equally bland facades to take hold of her, and to switch interchangeably with each other, for the purpose of not drawing attention to herself and to be left to her own devices, for the most part. She could pass for normal.

Her pale reflection, in contrast, would not be so capable, as she discovered after the battle, seating themselves comfortably at a fortunate table dragged from a ruined cottage, assured by the Other that no real time passed within the Inner World, or so little in comparison as to be nearly none, watching as the village around them burned.

It wasn't that the two of them were different at all. That wasn't it. It was that at the end of things, when all the comfortable illusions and self-denial was torn away, the two of them, Ranma and her pale reflection, would be exactly alike. Were Ranma of a less accepting mindset, that swift realization would have left her horrified, perhaps terrified of the reflection, and eager to deny that they could be in any way similar.

But Ranma was not in the habit of closing her eyes to reality.

"Neither of us should exist anymore, yanno?" The reflection drawled, slouched over the chair with feet propped up at the table, Ranma herself having automatically taken a more 'proper' seat, much to both of their amusement.

"See, once we were the Hollow, that was supposed to be it. Bang, gone, carve something nice on the tombstone for me shirley. But we held on, somehow, and forced ourselves back. But in some ways, it was already too far gone. Just having a zanpakuto, it makes your spirit energy like unto a shinigami's... and Hollows and Shinigami don't mix happily. And so, don't know how it happened, but... there was a split. Like mitosis of a dividing cell, 'cept, you know, not at all 'cuz then we'd still be completely identical. You get my drift, tho', right?"

"Indeed. The diametrically opposed energies would not subsist naturally in a single form and so, they created a second form to house one of them. And as I recieved powers similar unto that of the Shinigami, yours would therefore be more like unto that of Hollows."

"Bingo! Damn, I love being smart. But yeah, that's still not quite it. If that were all, then it would still be kinda the same thing. One of us a shinigami, an' the other, me, just a rampaging hungry Hollow. Now don't get me wrong! In may ways, I still wanna eat you all up..." The reflection leered provocatively. "But I aint tried, yet. An' with all other things bein' equal, I got about a fifty-fifty shot o' pulling it off right now, which is probably the best odds I'm gonna get. So why aint I made a move, yet? Go on, don't be shy! Throw some ideas out there, I know you wanna. You're me."

"Hm. It could simply be that you aren't confident in your success. While fifty percent odds aren't bad, they aren't clearly good either. It could go either way. Such reason smacks of cowardice, however, so probably not. It could simply be the opposite, that you're waiting for the odds to increase in _my_ favor, so that the battle would be more amusing for you, but you don't seem to be that type. The only logical reason, therefore, is some combination of simple lack of desire, and a very good reason to keep us both alive."

"There ya go, brains! Way to put the gray stuff to work! Now, lemme 'splain a little more. See, when we got split up, it didn't happen _quite_ right. There was a bit of bleed-off, and a coupla random little things got messed up in the rush. There's not much difference, but there's two main things. You got a bit of my 'hunger'... and in turn, I got a bit of your 'reason'. Ain't much, but it throws the whole dynamic right to hell. Never seen a shinigami chowing on a soul-burger, right? For my part, I can _think_, an' I gotta bad feeling I wasn't supposed ta be able to."

"And so the question arises... what, exactly, happens if one of us should destroy the other?"

"_Exactly_. Best case, not much. We keep everything, add it ta what the other part had, an' go on. Not quite so good, when one of us goes, that half'a our power goes bye-bye along with us. Worst case, an' this one's just for me, I win and then I'm just a crazy Hollow waiting for the black-robed clean-up-squad to shove a pointy chunk of metal into my head. You can see why I'm not 'zactly in a rush to throw that kinda dice here." the Reflection confirmed ruefully.

"Indeed... I wouldn't be at all pleased to have to throw away any advantage, no matter how minor."

"An' there we have it! The only thing left is deciding who's in charge, and really, I'm not gonna make any bones about that. Wouldn't have the patience ta deal with people I'm not either killing or about to kill anyway, and this place is interesting enough. The Lady's good company, too."

The reflection finished the statement with a lecherous eyebrow-waggle at the Other, who startlingly blushed at the attention. Ranma's face went blank as she purged every implication of that from her mind _with fire_.

"So yeah. It was just random chance, that I'm the Hollow, and even if I weren't then neither of us would be able to tell, so for now, I'll content myself with being my lady King's noble steed."

"I've no need of horses." Ranma snorted. "Instead, why not be my knight?"

"Pretty words, pretty words, brains. But horse, knight. Beneath the King, it's all the same. And since I'm not quite the real-deal, I don't even have a name to call my own, anymore."

"I'll give you one, if you need it. Names, and the having of them, are power in their own right. You are... like a reflection of myself. A mirror. Kagami. That, if you will have it, will be your name."

The reflection leaned back, seeming to mull the word over in her head, trying desperately to conceal what Ranma already knew, just how much she _needed_ an identity of her own. Were their places switched, she would be much the same.

"Kagami. Kaaaagaaami." She said, rolling the word around her mouth as though tasting it, then smirked. "Well hell, sure beats 'Hollow', or nothing at all. Fine, then. I'll be your knight, and lend you my power to slay our foes. Just one thing. _Don't_ bring me out without need, 'cause I ain't goin' back in 'till something's dead."

Ranma nodded solemnly, sealing the pact, with their nameless blade standing witness.

xxx

Back in the real world, less than a second had passed, and Ranma finished the swing awkwardly as the abberation erupted into a shower of gore and gibbets before her, then sheathed her blade and looked down.

Sitting there in the puddle of gore was the undamaged sheath and blade of Masamune, which she had nearly forgotten about. It seemed to whisper at her, dire, desperate promises, borne of a sort of longing. Ranma's face mellowed a little as she looked at it.

"A tool. That's all you are, really. But with some semblance of a mind of your own. Capable of jealousy, and desire. You are... almost human, in that respect. The only desire of a tool, though... is the wish to be held, and used, by one who can wield it properly."

She reached slowly down, pausing only a moment before taking hold of Masamune's hilt. It seemed to throb for a moment, a pulse of simplistic joy mingled with a sort of dark infatuation, and Ranma understood.

"Not seeking my death at all. All of this... simply to prove yourself as worthy for my use. Heh. Very well then. I would be something of a hypocrite at this point if I did not give you, also, a chance."

With her other hand, she took hold of the sheath, and then paused a moment before putting away the sword.

"Always remember, however..." She whispered softly to the sword. "I, and no other, am the King. Do not cross my will."

xxx

A.N.

Soooo, hey. Lots of neat ideas about Ranma's power, and I considered them all, then decided 'what the hell, I'm doing this for fun anyway' and just pulled it all out of my ass. And, you know, kinda referred a bit to the manga. Just some. Quick note tho', _not_ getting shikai fast. She'll probably have it, oh, sometime around the King Key arc thingy, I guess. For now, the whole 'suck you into my horrendously dangerous inner world' thing is game-breaking enough, if she can pull it off.

Anyhow, since I ended up not revealing Tatsuki's power in this chapter like I'd planned, y'all will just have to stew a bit more, I guess. Promise it's neat, tho'. Think Chad, but totally different. Nobody's guessed it yet, to my knowledge. Tiny hint, emotion plays a part. That's all you're getting, folks!

Also, yeah, Urahara knows about ki. I'm gonna say he doesn't know _much_ about it, though, because of the whole secretive-masters thing, and without someone to study he can't build a doohickey to guage ki-levels or anything. So at best, he only suspects that Ranma might have it. His forte is spirit energy stuff, where he excels, and he really _didn't_ consider that either of them were stupid enough to break the chain of fate, even though he was pretty sure Ranma had a heavy hand in getting Tatsuki to hunt for teaching. No idea about how crazy-obsessed, and/or just crazy she can get yet, she's been rather normal while she could tell he was watching. And yes, he could tear Ranma apart in a thousand different ways.

And yeah, Ranma will be going to Soul Society. Sayo will be walking her body back to campus, and I haven't decided which way Zero will go yet. Soul Society will be _fun_ tho'.

And here's some quotes that I _want_ to use, but probably won't get the chance to, depending on how the plot flows on me.

Ranma (to Kenpachi): Wait, so what you're saying is that you're really, _really_ good at cutting things to death... but pretty much all you can really do is cut things to death. That's either really awesome or really lame, I can't quite decide.

Ranma(to Mayuri): What, you put bombs in your henchmen, set them off, and they tried to run back at you? Moron! Put a paralytic in too, set that off first, _then_ blow the bombs all at once so they can't scatter and cut the effect! That's how you do it!

Ranma(to Ulquiorra,Yammy): Why, if it isn't my arch-nemesis... Giggles, the Emo Clown! And his trusty sidekick, uh.... Mr. McDamnBig!

Yeah, that's about it. Bye now.


	10. Chapter 10

Aaaand here's a brief explanation of why Chizuru is not currently playing a serious role, and probably won't ever be. It's simply because I can only see any encounter between her and Ranma, that lasts more than a minute or two, going one of these two general ways, which I've put in psuedo-text-speak, for your convenience. And while they _might_ be fun to write.... eh, I'm having more fun the way things are going now.

A-

Ch: Hay lts ttly make out!

R:... (eyes Ch)... 'K.

B-

Ch: Groeps R.

R: Takes Ch.

Ch: 8D

AND NOW YOU KNOW!

Also, brief note of spelling checking failure. It's supposed to be Muramasa, not Masamune, at the end of nine. Wiki it and it'll be obvious why. Some of you already know. So let's begin!

xxx

Mahoranma

In which Assumptions get made, and Ranma comes out ahead. As usual.

xxx

Ranma had, in between training Tatsuki, decoding Urahara's notebook, and attending school, begun looking into the benifits of being some sort of twisted hybrid of dead things with voices in her head.

So far, she was pulling a pretty big blank. Apparently, there was some sort of increase with her normal levels of spirit energy, the whole inner world thing that was proving to be incomparably useful, but that was about it. There were the shinigami powers as well... that she wouldn't be able to use without a great deal of study and effort. There were also the Hollow powers... or rather, the lack thereof, as Kagami had sheepishly admitted she had no idea what they might be, or how, exactly, to make them work.

So essentially, she got a somewhat more brutally vicious voice in her head out of the deal, and a bunch powers she couldn't immediately use. And so, she had begun trying to work out ways to get the ball rolling and learn how to make those powers work, starting with the shinigami side of the equation.

xxx

"In essence." the Other stated. "Pretty much all of a shinigami's power is bound up in their zanpakuto, in this case me. There are some unique fighting styles, yes, and a lot of psuedo-spells that can't be activated by beginners without ridiculously long chants beforehand. Very nice, in the flowery, usually sort of effeminate sort of way, but very likely to leave you with a chunk of steel stuck in your ribs after you match up against someone not genteel enough to stand still while you recite poetry at them. If you can practice to the point that you can activate the demon arts with just a few short words rather than an epic ballad, then that's the way to go, but for the most part it's the sword that holds the power."

"I see..."

"But in order for you to get that power, the shinigami needs to know the name of their zanpakuto. My name is -"

"I... didn't catch that." Ranma admitted, rubbing at her suddenly throbbing ears.

"-. It's -. I really don't understand why you can't hear me say -, when usually a shinigami can't even talk to their zanpakuto until they're ready to hear the name and awaken Shikai." the Other admitted in turn, making no bones about her confusion.

Ranma had flinched several times during the diatribe at the horrible, horrible noise that intervened whenever the Other's actual name was spoken, preventing her from actually making it out and causing her eyes to water just enough that she couldn't even clearly read the sword's lips.

"In any case, just telling me looks like it isn't going to work." Ranma said. "Maybe we should try this from a different angle? I mean, is there any rule that I have to get your name by you _saying_ it? Maybe you could just write it on something...."

The Other frowned, considering the idea, then kicked the dust, squatting and beginning to trace lines in it in an attempt to form a word. Unfortunately, a strange breeze picked up at that moment, blowing ash through the air, destroying the characters as fast as she wrote them down and stinging at Ranma's eyes. Not for the first time, Ranma wondered why she couldn't avoid that sort of thing in a place where she _technically_ was the law of reality and could all but rewrite it as she saw fit.

"This isn't working." The other realized after a few awkward minutes.

"Okay. So writing isn't going to work either, and I still have no idea where to begin, and now I have a headache and my eyes are all red and puffy. Great. So... charades, maybe?"

"Worth a shot." the Other decided halfheartedly, apparently having given up hope for the most part. "First syllable, then. Starts with '-', sounds like '-'."

"OH FOR F-"

xxx

In any case, the attempt hadn't really gone well. Having run out more logical options, Ranma was pretty much limited to guessing random words and the combinations thereof for a while before giving the whole thing up in frustration as a bad job.

Next, she'd looked into the whole Hollow thing. Needless to say, that hadn't worked out much better.

xxx

'Well, finally got us one. 'Bout time, too.' Kagami snarked.

"Look, it is _not_ my fault that I didn't realize that Muramasa's soul devouring properties meant that if it came into contact with a Hollow, essentially a _solid, evil soul_, beneath a certain level of power, that it would automatically _devour them itself, instantly_. We got this one with the zanpakuto eventually, right?"

The sword in question seemed to give off a sense of sheepishness and apology as she glowered down at the Hollow, pinned to the concrete by a bunch of broken pipes and other random stuff that had either been vaguely pointy when they'd found it, or had been made to have a point without much effort. There was no question that it was 'edible', as that weird 'why does it feel like I'm looking at a platter of nachos?' feeling had come over her once she'd seen a Hollow after the chain thing, and every one since had triggered similar feelings. The question was eating it.

'So, Hollow energies grow by eating ghosts and other Hollows. I think. Not 'zactly a manual for this stuff, but it's my best guess, anyway. So, uh... eat up.'

"What, just take bites out of it like a ravenous hound or something?" Ranma objected, slightly disgusted by the idea. "Isn't there some more... elegant way, to handle this sort of thing?"

'Hell if I know.' Was the succinct reply. Ranma frowned absently, kicking the trapped Hollow as it tried, subtly as it could manage but not near sneakily enough, to start prying itself free.

"No hope for it, I just have to ask." Ranma decided. "Hey, you. Monster. How do you ingest the spirit energies of others such as yourself?"

The Hollow stared dumbly at her, and Ranma sighed, dumbing the question down a bit.

"How do you eat stuff?"

"I... put it in my mouth...?" The Hollow ventured cautiously, wary of the mad little girl and her evil doll.

"Typical. No help whatsoever."

'Eh, if it's that bad, maybe I can try? Dunno, but a lot of this stuff seems to work on instinct and desire, or maybe need... just stuff like that. If I'm there, and I want to eat him, but not with my mouth, I think I'll probably figure something out.' Kagami offered.

"An excellent point, and if it comes down to the standard method of ingestion after all, I can simply watch and frown in distaste." Ranma realized. "Very well, we'll do that, then."

A very long, very awkward silence followed.

'You... don't actually know how to switch places with me, do you.'

"First, I was hoping that you would unexpectedly, immediately, and inexplicably be able to figure out how to do it on your own. Second, _shut up_." Ranma countered. "Oh, this is just wonderful. How vulgar. I'll have to buy mouthwash after we're through with this, as well as a new toothbrush, and heavy duty floss. I can't imagine that evil spirit is at all sanitary or easy on the teeth, and this has been lying on the ground for a while."

"Hey, wait just a moment crazy-girl, I can't quite follow your conversation with the voices in your head, but I don't think I like what I think you're planning to- _oh crap, my arm, you cut off my arm, you crazy bitch!_" The Hollow spoke up again.

Ranma speared the severed limb with her zanpakuto and lifted it to about face height, ignoring the victim's rapid, impassioned, and yet feeble protests. It was both singularly unappetizing, and the most delicious looking thing she'd ever seen at once, somehow. She sighed.

"Well, bottoms up." She decided, levering the hunk of meat off the blade and ripping a huge bite off of it and chewing.

Actually, once her mind got over exactly _what_ it was that was in her mouth, it wasn't that bad. The Hollow had looked like a sort of humanoid reptile thingy, and indeed, it's flesh reminded her very much of lizard, which she had eaten more than a few times on Genma's training trip, when supplies and money had grown scarce and they'd had to scavenge all sorts of things for food. And despite that the limb was obviously raw, it _tasted_ like it had been cooked, and done properly with just the right seasoning to boot. It was almost nostalgic... curious, she swallowed, noted the miniscule, near imperceptible spirit energy increase and the strange aftertaste that left her wanting more, and tore another large bite loose.

It had been exactly then that Tatsuki turned down into the alleyway and stopped, taking in the scene. Ranma, for her part, froze as well, the bite of Hollow hanging partially out of her mouth. After a moment, she slurped it in and swallowed. After another, she awkwardly and almost guiltily hid the severed limb behind her back, as though it would make the other girl un-see the situation. The Hollow was sobbing incoherently, Ranma noted.

"I... gah... huh?"

"This... this isn't what it looks like? Actually, no, it's pretty much exactly what it looks like, isn't it. Um, so I was thinking, Hollows, they uh, eat people. Like, whenever they feel like it. And it irritated me, so uh, I kinda thought 'Maybe someone should eat _them_ for a change', and... yeah, you aren't buying any of this, are you?"

"You know what, don't even try to explain" Tatsuki decided. "I don't really care, and if I had to think of _one_ person I might walk in on doing something mind-scarringly horrible as this, it would be you. So what we're going to do is, I'm going to go walk to the end of the street, count to ten, walk back, and when I get here the Hollow will be dead, there won't be blood caked around your mouth, you're going to buy me an extra large, expensive chocolate sundae to help me repress the memory of..... _this_, and I can only hope that I only see this image again in my nightmares, alright?"

Ranma nodded rapidly and wordlessly.

xxx

She'd still kept eating Hollows, of course, but she'd been much more wary about the wheres and whens of it after that unexpected interruption. Any power increase was minimal, and they weren't filling at all, but... there was just _something_ about it that left her literally salivating for more every time one of the monsters crossed her path. Of course, it hadn't taken the things long to get the hint, and the population running around Karakura had thinned out really fast, apparently ceding ground to a larger predator.

Kagami had found it hilarious.

In any case, with little or no progress in the realm of spiritual energy, she had spent the days working on other pursuits. At long last, she had cast off her father's decision regarding the forbidden schools, at least in part, and dissected the Yama techniques to rework them, creating entirely new techniques with the idea behind the vacuum blades as a model.

She would keep the Yama itself sealed, and likely never actually use the techniques as Genma had created them again. Her own, marginally less flashy but arguably far more deadly techniques could fill the void.

If she used them almost solely with her left, most especially the poison claw technique which relied upon the unnaturally created poison to be expelled from her claw tips at exactly the right time, carrying it to be delivered from a distance into newly created wounds, then it would leave the understandable impression that the use of those invisible blades was a function of the arm itself as well. A nasty surprise to keep in store for someone particularly deserving, she supposed.

The Umi, the much lesser used twin school, was trickier. In the end, she'd been forced to admit that the vast majority of that school was particularly useless, simply being the perfect counters for the techniques of the Yama. Against a practitioner who used those techniques to the exclusion of all others, it was ideal! However, with them both being sealed, the likelyhood of such a person existing was all but impossible. The only interesting part of it, in the end, was the technique used as a part of its 'ghost' stance, which drew in and concealed the user's ki from others. It could be reworked to create a very similar, even near-identical technique for spirit energy.

Unfortunately, such a technique could well be counterintuitive. As her own reserves increased slowly to the point that she could actually sense those of others, she had realized that the Ichigo boy was quite simply a _ridiculously enormous_ wellspring of spirit energy. In comparison to just about any of his contemporaries, it was like measuring sling bullets to cannon balls, and it continued to swell as days passed. With all that spirit energy floating about wherever he went, it would actually be _easier_ to pick hers out if she tried to conceal it in his presence, only requiring that someone pick out the empty spot in the maelstrom. Any Shinigami, Hollow, or anything else with large enough levels of spiritual energy would face her with similar problems, and she suspected the same held true of people with inordinate levels of ki.

So, sadly, there would be no ninja business in her near future, she supposed.

As a bonus, though, she had figured out how to deal with the problem with the energy bleedoff of the ki beam. The problem had actually been quite tricky to work out, but then she had noticed something odd, and with a little more pushing had worked out that ki was 'sort-of magnetic', for lack of a proper term. If it was just one simple beam, then a lot of it would be drawn away by other nearby sources of life, sucking some of the power from it. If there were _two_ beams, side by side... the side facing opposite of the other beam would still bleed off a little power to the surroundings, but the sides near each other...

Well, they would still have bleedoff, which seemed inevitable at this point without a great deal of further study. It was irrelevant, however, because the bled off energy was attracted to the nearest other source of ki and became a part of it, that source being _the other beam_. So while the beams were individually still bleeding off a lot of energy, much of that energy was actually reinforcing the opposing beam, an the end result was much more powerful. It worked best when the beams either twirled around each other like a helix, or one beam spiraled around the other, straight beam, keeping it in near perfect condition while bleeding off much of its own energy. She tended towards using the second, in spite of a marginal loss of power, because a pink spiral beam just looked like an oddly colored drill bit whirling, while the helix looked unfortunately like she was shooting pink ribbons out of her palm, which just couldn't be tolerated.

All in all, she'd been progressing nicely, and was considering a rather more esoteric technique she'd read about once.

Kanka.

It had been impressive to read about, but she'd never made any sort of attempt to learn it, because it had required that the user draw upon to seperate sources of power and blend them to fuel it. Ki... and _magic_.

She'd immediately put the tome away upon reading that, and hadn't thought of it since. Now.... now, however, she was wondering if the technique mightn't be remodeled somewat. The energies powering the technique had been described as being in opposition to the blending, which was why it had worked. Euphemistically, Magic was the World, placed in one hand, and Ki was ones Self, placed in the other, and the forced mingling of the two was how Kanka worked...

There were other oppositions to consider however, and Ki could just as easily be considered a power of Life as well as Self. And spirit energy... it was undeniably a power linked deeply to and with Death.

A question to be looked into in more depth at a later date, once she had returned to Mahora and could find that tome once more.

That return, however, would be put off a little longer.

xxx

"Tell me, Tatsuki. Why is it, that you all will follow Ichigo into the soul society tonight?"

"I wouldn't expect you to understand." Tatsuki shot back, having been thoroughly pressed by the training she was going through. Her body flickered, and Ranma whipped out a water balloon, pelting her with it.

"Control! Your form is currently linked to your mental state when you activate those powers. Allow your emotion to shift and your form will change in response, and with rage you become the Fire. Powerful, yes, but indiscriminate and difficult to control. Focus!"

"I _am_ focused! I'm calm!" Tatsuki said, the edges of her stony form going flinty at the declaration.

"You are _not_." Ranma rebuffed firmly. "Were you _calm_ you would currently be a placid, still form of Water. You are _determined_, and so stony Earth is what shapes your form. _Why _is it, Tatsuki, that I can determine the nature and predilections of your power so easily, and even spell it out to you in excruciating detail, but it is so _difficult_ for you to grasp the same even with my aid?"

"I dunno. You're the crazy genius, you tell me." Tatsuki snarked, form flickering again. A water balloon dutifully smacked between her eyes as Ranma took note of it.

"In any case, I was simply wondering aloud. Kuchiki Rukia was a part of your lives for only a short time, most of which was spent lying to you, pretending to be a simple schoolgirl and modifying memories when anything otherwise was discovered. You owe her nothing. And yet, you still plan to rush headlong to her rescue and recovery?"

"It's what Ichigo wants to do." Tatsuki growled. "As Nakama, I can't just-"

"Ah. Of course. Nakama. How silly of me. It's not about Kuchiki at all, simply that Kurosaki wishes to go, and so you will follow, like a pack of hounds dogging the Alpha's every move. Or not quite even that? I think it's more. It's not Kurosaki at all, or not quite. It's that once Ichigo had decided to go, the besotted princess, your Orihime, was sure to follow, and the knight cannot stand to be left behind."

"SHUT UP!" Tatsuki yelled, surging to her feet and into flame in the same motion. The automatic water balloon evaporated before it reached her.

"FOCUS! If a little needling from me can agitate you so, and you cannot control your emotions, then you're trusting to mere fortune to be what you need to be at the right time. You're nowhere near ready to put this to the test in a combat situation, and the element of surprise over the nature of your powers will only take you so far!"

Tatsuki seethed, but forcibly settled down, the flames going out and stone beneath taking their place... no, not quite. Some of the anger hadn't been banished, revealing itself in the fact that the stone was the thick black crust of magma, clinking as it slowly cooled. How fascinating! Every time Ranma thought she'd seen everything the girl's powers had to offer, something new cropped up.

"Despite not being ready... you're leaving tonight, aren't you." Ranma stated, and was answered with a curt nod.

".... Tch. Take the rest of the day off and take a nap or something. You'll need your energy if you intend to survive this foolhardy venture, and what I've been able to pound into your head about ki isn't enough to fill in for your gaps yet. Hmph. The program ends today, as well."

"You aren't coming with us?" Tatsuki asked, apparently having only just realized this possibility, the anger winking out and leaving her starting to flicker into another form before she siezed control once more.

"Oho? Did you think I would be here to hold your hand forever, Arisawa Tatsuki? The program lasts two weeks only, if you recall. I'm expected on a train in the morning."

Tatsuki nodded somberly.

xxx

She was still a little depressed about that even when the summons to Urahara's came, but not enough to cloud the indignation at the bloody writing. She just hoped that it wasn't visible to normal people, or her mother was going to absolutely flip when she saw...

She paused for a moment, considering letting Ranma know that she was off, but when she opened the door the younger girl was sleeping so peacefully that... in the end, she had simply left, silently.

She had been in for a surprise when she'd finally made it, to see Ranma waiting there, smirking at her.

"You! But you said you weren't-?"

"Is that what you heard?" Ranma wondered. "If I recall, what I said was 'the program only lasts two weeks', and 'I'm expected on a train in the morning'. I never said that I wasn't going with you. At the same time, of course, I never claimed I would, and I will indeed be on that morning train. Or rather, Sayo-chan has generously agreed to take care of my body for my while I'm not using it. I can only expect that my muscles and reputation will be horribly atrophied by the time I return, and nobody of any importance will be fooled by the body double, but they can't prove anything so I really don't care."

"Then you'll help us after all?"

"When did I ever agree to that?" Ranma wondered again. "I'm infiltrating the soul society for my own private purposes, and simply happen to be travelling alongside you to get there. If our paths cross again while within the afterlife, and I end up assisting in your own goals, then it's mere coincidence at best."

"I see.... thank you." Tatsuki said, honestly grateful, having automatically filtered and decoded the speech out of experience.

"Tch."

"_I_ don't think she should go!" Ichigo interrupted. "She's... _look_ at her! And she has the lowest spirit energy of us to boot!"

"Oh? I'm insulted that you think a great lummox like yourself could prevent me from doing anything I feel particularly inclined towards doing." Ranma shot back. "But then, I tend not to pay much attention to the opinions of men in dresses."

"It's not a _dress_!" Ichigo automatically insisted. "It's a... a uniform, thing. It seperates into pants, and it doesn't even look like a dress! Does it...?" He finished hesitantly, turning towards the nearest male for backup. Uryuu refused to say anything, which was in itself far more damning evidence than anything he could have said.

"Dress sense aside..." Urahara interjected. "Ichigo has a point. You have a zanpakuto, yes, from that ill-fated-yet-incredibly-fortunate training exercise I heard about, but I've not seen anything else special about you of yet. Odds are, you'll die. Still want to go?"

"I can take care of myself, Shopkeeper-san."

"Oh? Well, I suppose I'll just have to take your word for- _think fast!_"

He'd finished the sentence in a rush, launching a demon-art fireball at almost the same breath. Reacting instantly to the assault, Ranma automatically created an orb of ki and launched it, impacting with the fireball and detonating them both before it crossed even half the distance to her. Urahara smiled and shrugged.

"See, at the same time that answers a _lot_ of my questions, and proves your own point. Try not to die while invading the afterlife, 'kay?"

Ranma didn't bother to dignify the statement with a response, instead adgusting the position of her zanpakuto and the wrapped Muramasa, and setting Zero to perch on her shoulder and leer at people. She'd considered leaving one or both of the latter with Sayo, for her protection, but wasn't sure the demon-blade wouldn't just devour the ghost out of spite once she touched it, and all things considered Zero wasn't _that_ much of a better prospect, despite that she might be able to keep the ghost 'in-character' for a while, an endeavor that was probably doomed from the very beginning.

As long as she stayed on-campus, she would be fine, Ranma had explained to her, and it wasn't like she was likely to be assaulted by Hollows on the trip back either. The ones in Karakura had learned to beware redheads, and the train would drop her off close enough to Mahora for it to not really be an issue.

She'd zoned out at some point, but the gate had been set up and the group was starting through. She quickly followed, sparing not a glance behind for the shopkeeper and only dimly acknowledging his advice of 'don't stop running, or you'll probably die!'

She hit the ground moving, and quickly took towards the head of the pack, pulling into the lead after something behind caught their momentary attention. Probably Ishida's cape getting caught on a wall or something equally pointless.

As she reached the end of the tunnel, she turned back for a moment to guage the rest, and blinked at the huge, horrible sort-of-worm thing chasing them.

"Run faster!" She advised seriously, then stepped through the other end of the gate, no intention of getting caught up in that.

As she was ejected well above ground level, she took a moment to review her goals.

She had, at first, thought of hunting down some famous persons, legendary swordsmiths and warriors and the like, and grilling them for information. That idea had lasted her about long enough to come across the information that apparently people _also_ died in Soul Society and were reborn on earth or something to that effect, and that a significant majority of those people couldn't remember anything about their previous lives anyway, making the whole thing moot. The odds of hunting down lost secrets of battle having reached a point that finding anything in the limited timeframe of 'however long it takes Kurosaki to rescue that girl' was going to be damn near impossible, she'd gone right to plan B.

Infiltrate the Shinigami in order to steal whatever juicy scraps of knowledge she might happen across. Somehow. She'd work out the details as she happened across them, making this plan a little more flexible.

About the time she touched down on the ground, the more numerous portion of the raiding party was ejected rather more violently, shooting down to impact with the ground in far, far less than half the time it had taken her to reach it. Having glanced up to see them coming, Ranma also noticed something else, thick slabs of stone and wood, which had begun to drop... by the time she realized that they would fall into a wall surrounding the bit over there with the best roads, which she belatedly realized was probably where the shinigami lived, it was too late.

A very large man with a very large axe was now standing in front of the gate. Ranma considered that, taking only a moment to dismiss all the logical impossibilities of this situation, and decided on a course of action.

"Have fun playing with your new friend, Kurosaki." She said, casually booting him from his prone position to land awkwardly in front of the giant.

The rest of the group had something to say about that, but Ranma really didn't feel like listening, so she just grunted a little and nodded every so often to give the illusion that she was paying attention to anything but the fight. As expected, Ichigo had little trouble dealing with the gatekeeper, and Ranma blurred into the motion of shundo the second he started to lift the gate upwards.

She sensed a much higher source of spirit energy on the other side the second there was so much as a crack of space between the bottom of the gate and the ground, but was too late to stop moving. Instead, she sped herself up, and dropped into a roll as the world seemed to slow down around her, the technique greedily devouring her ki reserves. She passed beneath the gate with barely enough room to spare and hurled herself into a leap, landing on her feet and rebounding to the inside of the wall and running as fast as she could, to put as much distance as possible between herself and the person with enough power behind them to dwarf _Kurosaki_.

In real-time, Ichimaru Gin frowned at an unexpected rush of wind and started to turn before catching himself and remaining face forward, grinning at Jidanbou, who was very surprised to see him. By the time the next thirty seconds had passed, leaving the gatekeeper less an arm, the gate firmly down, and all of the ryoka safely outside, he'd completely forgotten about the weird breeze.

For their part, it wasn't until nearly an hour later that the rest of the humbled invaders realized that one of their number had gone entirely missing. One and a half, if they included the animate toy.

xxx

"So, which way should we go from here?"

'Left.' Kagami decided.

"Right." Zero offered.

"Straight ahead it is!" Ranma confirmed, still running, but at a much slower rate without the amplification of Shundo. Now that stage one 'Get into the place' had been completed, she should probably get to work on figuring out just what stage two should be. Winging it didn't seem to be working.

It was about then that she bumped into a very large man wearing a bucket with eyeslits over his head and tumbled inelegantly right onto her ass.

"... Ow."

The large man somberly reached down and assisted her in rising, in so much as 'carefully lifting her with two fingers, brushing the dust off her, and setting her on her feet' could be considered assistance. Actually, it was kind of humiliating, and she was pretty sure she could see the shades and 'stach guy two steps behind bucket-head smirking at her.

"Are you well, child?" The man? beneath the bucket wondered aloud.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Take worse tumbles all the time, big guy, this is no sweat."

"You will adress Captain Komamura with the appropriate respect." Shades said reprovingly, light glinting dramatically off his shades.

'I don't like the one with shades. We should totally kill these guys. Like, right now. They wouldn't expect it at all, and it'd be fun.' Kagami decided. Ranma ignored her, noting that her reflection seemed to have inherited not the slightest bit of her self-preservation skills.

"Yeah, sure. Sorry about that, Captain big guy, sir. You too, Shades." She said instead, quickly concealing the fact that she had no idea who these people were with a flippant exterior and the preference to use nicknames thought up on the spot over a person's actual name.

Fortunately enough, both of them were more than familiar with someone with much the same actual personality, and so she was mildly surprised when the bucket Captain simply chuckled.

For his part, Komamura had taken in the details of the girl, young, friendly but snappish, funny clothes and decorations, and the zanpakuto and wrapped something that he presumed was another weapon of some kind, carrying a dolly in one arm, and drew the only obvious conclusion. She was an academy student, probably one of the ones that hadn't been selected as astounding during training and pre-selected for a specific division, and was about to be assigned about to be assigned one, but was in a hurry and rushing around because she thought she was going to be late. He stated this conclusion aloud.

"Yes!" Ranma immediately agreed, siezing greedily upon the unknowingly proferred cover story. "You gotta be a mind reader, Captain Big Guy, Sir, because that's _exactly_ the situation. See, I _might_ have gone out walking and taken a couple wrong turns, and I hate to admit it but it's _entirely_ possible that I'm completely and totally lost and frantic right now, and would you please set me back on track because I'd be ever so grateful?"

Komamura chuckled again, once more drawing a parallel with a certain officer, and happily pointed the way for the lost little shinigami-to-be.

"Such a nice young lady." He said after she gratefully thanked him and left. "I wonder what division she'll end up in."

"C'mon, captain. You know they pretty much draw numbers out of a hat for anyone who's not particularly given towards any specific field."

"True, true." Komamura frowned behind his steel mask. "Oh. I do hope the poor girl doesn't end up in eleventh or twelfth. Those divisions are so... violent, and unethical, respectively. It would be a terrible shame to see such innocence blighted."

There was a moment of strange awkwardness between the two, as though the Captain had said something terribly strange, and neither of them could work out why.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Captain. It's two out of thirteen, the odds aren't that great. And besides, Kusajishi does well enough in eleventh, I'm sure the vice-captain would welcome another girl, even look out for her a little."

"..... I note you have no similar reassurances regarding Kurotsuchi's division." Komamura stated gravely.

"............. No. No, I'm afraid I don't."

xxx

'You change your personality as easily as your clothes, looks like.' Kagami grunted in mild disgust.

"It's called _acting_. Frankly, a better option than picking a fight with someone who's levels of spirit energy are, in a word, ridiculous and getting everyone's attention even _if_ I pull out a win. That's not the _point_ of this little venture, if you recall."

'Feh. You and your stupid reasonable, rational arguments and completely valid points are always keeping us from having any fun.'

"I'll kick a puppy later, or something. For now, shut up, I'm trying to look like I actually belong here."

She was actually doing pretty well at that. In a large room full of people who ranged from obscenely hideous to unnaturally beautiful, with all variety of interesting clothes, as apparently this was the last time they would be wearing anything but a standart uniform and maybe in the future, if they were lucky, an arm badge or even captain's jacket, as well as a bunch of interesting tattoos and/or body modifications, extending to people with horns or extra eyes, the only reason she'd possibly stand out was that she might actually look too normal, compared to the rest.

"Hey, hey!" A particularly loathsome specimen grumbled, either in twisted mockery or in an honest attempt at friendliness, either way unappreciated. "Never seen you 'fore. You musta been in a different class. Gotta name, cutie?"

'Can we kill this one?' Kagami requested politely.

In the span of time it took her to mentally deny the request, the person's eyes were caught by Zero.

"Dolly? What's this?" He grumbled, reaching down.

"I wouldn't." Ranma warned.

"Wassit gonna do? Bite me?" He guffawed, holding Zero by the head and lifting.

"Well... probably not. She might stab you though."

"I _totally will_!" Zero declared, pulling a pair of knives from somewhere. Startled, the goonish person immediately dropped her back down to the table and stumbled a half-step back.

"Alright everyone, settle down into a seat, and a uniform will be passed out to you. In the inside hem is a number corresponding to your new division, and in the left pocket is a handy map, just in case any of you morons have an unnaturally horrible sense of direction, or have a bad enough memory that you can't recall any of Sereitei's landmarks or how to get from point A to B. Apparently its happened with distressing regularity."

'That's almost ridiculously convenient.' Kagami noted. 'And that means that nobody's likely to die soon. Shame.'

Ranma casually stepped into the black uniform, securing it properly as she considered the number she had seen inside. It had been a Four.

She could only wonder what that might mean.

xxx

A.N.

Infiltration complete. And now, show of hands, _who_ saw this coming, and how much of it? I wanna know. Pretty sure the Elementalism thingy came out of left field, and I'd like to think that the espionage thing over simply going with the flow of the main attack is a neat twist... though I may have pushed it a little hard, I dunno. I'm going to assume that Gin was under strict orders from Aizen and really focused on following a script _exactly_, though it doesn't account for him forgetting 'funny breezes', and maybe because he's squinting all the time he didn't make out the blur that was Ranma?

Okay, yeah, I'm pushing the logic a bit a bit. Oh well. The plot will stretch to cover my whims. She was just really, really lucky, I guess.

And speaking of whims, _Fourth Division_. This, I _know_ nobody saw coming. Honestly, at first I was going to go with the more logical decison of eleventh or twelfth, to fit her character kinda, sorta, but then I recalled the previous nursing scene with Eva, this idea hit me, and I giggled like a moron for about fifteen minutes.

So, um, no promises about how the next chapter will go. It might be Waff-y. Actually, probably not, it'll most likely be horrible and/or hilarious, but Waff is a vague possibility at this point, maybe. Not a really big one, but fair warning, you know?

Why, I'm going giddy at the thought of writing the next chapter. Or maybe I'm just tired. Update in the morning.


	11. Chapter 11

Fourth division was interesting.

On the one hand, the division of healers seemed to get all the scut jobs. Unlike the relatively modern idea of the Doctor being a noble and worthy profession in which one could become rich and powerful, soul society seemed to follow its outer appearance and subscribe to a rather older viewpoint, which was actually understandable. The healers got the scut jobs because healing was _already_ a scut job, and a particularly nasty one at that, flat out requiring that the person who'd been suckered into it very closely inspect and take detailed notes on just about anything disgusting that could happen to a person, in an attempt to fix it. They got their hands dirty already with those menial, often bloody chores, and so a few more menial chores being relegated to their division wasn't thought of as at all odd by any of the other divisions. And really, from that point, it was just another short step to dumping _all_ of them on fourth, leaving things at the current status quo. Ranma had spent her first few hours as a fourth division recruit painstakingly scrubbing another division's floors, apparently as a sample of things to come.

On the other hand...

On the other hand, the division was almost perfect for her needs, simply _because_ the healers had no real choice but to sub as janitors for the rest of the shinigami. They had the keys to get _everywhere_ and as long as you were carrying a broom, or a bucket of water and rag, _nobody_ looked twice at a shinigami of the fourth division, or wondered why they were somewhere.

On top of that, Fourth had an extensive library all their own, apparently describing in clinical detail just about _everything_ that could end up happening with the mis-application, or deliberately botched application, of spirit energy. She'd been a little light-headed at the discovery of this unexpected treasure trove, and thoroughly intended to work out ways to deliberately mimic some of the more interesting of those effects under more controlled circumstances.

It seemed that Fourth wasn't the only division with such a library either, Twelfth, the 'Research' division being the most well known other, as well as some scattered small libraries of esoteric, non-standard demon arts through some of the other divisions. There was no general library available to all shinigami, however, which was unfortunate. Twelfth division was apparently an extremely hazardous area for everyone, reaching near-lethal levels of danger for anyone that was not a seated officer there, and she didn't even know exactly which of the othe divisions held those secret libraries, yet.

No, until something came up to distract everyone, which would most likely be Ichigo making another boneheaded assault, she would settle for just greedily devouring the knowledge contained in the fourth division's library. That decided, she had remained in the library until late in the night, reading by candlelight.

Before that, however, but after the floor-scrubbing, she'd been subject to several hours of special kido training alongside the rest of the new recruits. Demon arts used specifically for healing were apparently used pretty much only in the Fourth division and so, officially, were only taught here. Not that someone couldn't learn them if they were inclined, which nobody was, and could sweet-talk someone from the division into it, which none would lower themselves to, but that was the official stance. Drawing upon her extensive knowledge of ki use and applying it to the lessons, Ranma managed to muddle along adequately in the surprise class, neither near the best or worst of the bunch, despite having never actually attended the academy and, really, having no idea what she was actually doing.

Of course, in spite of the apparent lack of brilliance, the way she had gone right from duty to study without complaint, and then continued on with personal study long after the minimum daily time had been met, lasting long after others would have slept, hadn't gone unnoticed. It was marked up to exceptional dedication.

xxx

Mahoranma

Ranma Is Not A Good Doctor.

xxx

"Ah! New recruit, Saotome-san, we need help in.... the eleventh division member introduced intoxicated and with multiple lacerations to the torso has become belligerent and we need every available hand to restrain him so he can be sedated."

"Oh? Lead on, then." Ranma replied, eyes not budging from the text she was engrossed in, but standing and following the senior member obediently enough.

As expected, the hairy, smelly man was laying waste to everyone who attempted to get near him.

"BAHAHAHA! Y'lil scrubs think jes' a few lil papercuts' enough t' keep an 'leventh down f'r long? Outta my way!"

"But sir, if left untreated, infection can set into even the most innocuous of wounds!"

"BAHAHAHA! F'r _you_ puny scrubs, maybe, eh? Us 'levens're tougher than that!"

"Infection doesn't care how strong yoof!"

The howling man caught the worried medic in the stomach with a backhand, knocking him away. Ranma turned a page in the text.

"My, my. This _is_ problematic. If he continues to so exert himself, then he'll bleed more, and the wounds I caught sight of were fairly deep. What do you expect me to do?"

"Help to subdue him, of course!" The senior member barked. Ranma bit off the almost formed statement that _he_ didn't seem at all eager to throw his weight into the brawl either.

"Why?" She wondered aloud instead. "If things continue as they are, he's going to collapse from exhaustion or bloodloss sooner or later and operation can begin without further interruption. Or he'll die. One of those."

"Just do it!"

"Alright, alright, I'm going, Mr. Senior. Hey, hey, everyone. Back off a bit. I have some small experience dealing with disorderly drunkards." She said, eyes still not leaving the book as she flipped another page. The other recruits were more than grateful to get out of the way, and the elevent division member just seemed amused.

"Experience? Deal with _this_!" He yelled, swinging another wild backhand. Even without paying much attention to the sloppy brawler, Ranma didn't have to expend too much effort in just stepping back and avoiding it entirely.

The drunk stared dumbly at his fist as though it had betrayed him, and Ranma flipped another page.

"I'm required to advise that you return peacefully to your room, of your own volition, before any other action is taken. I'd really advise you to do so. You can get those stitched up without causing problems and then take a nap or something, I can get back to my study until some sort of menial chore for the day is assigned to me, everyone wins. So how about it?"

The drunk bellowed incoherently and slammed his fist into the floor where she'd been in lieu of an answer. He'd blinked, though, and somehow between that blink Ranma had gone from standing in the middle of what was now a spiderweb of tiny cracks in the wood to sitting daintily on the man's arm, legs crossed, still reading the text.

"I'll take that as a 'no', then. Looks like you really won't respond to anything but a show of force, as I'd expected. Oh well."

Ranma's gloved hand darted out to poke hard at a very specific spot of the drunk's shoulder, then returned to flip the page as she hopped off and took a couple of steps away. The man's arm went completely limp as she came to a stop, not yet bothering to turn.

"Wh-? I can't... my arm! Some kind of demon art?" The drunk wondered semi-coherently.

"Feh. As though I'd waste that kind of energy on the likes of _you_." Ranma denied. "Eleventh division is focused on combat, if I recall correctly. You should know already, that certain parts of the body are more... receptive, let's say, to sudden impact than others. This goes a bit beyond that, requiring a rather more advanced knowledge of anatomy. What I did just then was simply to depress a certain point with enough force to pinch a cluster of nerves beneath, causing a temporary numbness and immobility to the limb beyond that point. 'A foolish soldier is he that mocks the healer, not realizing that he who most regularly puts people back together is also he who is most efficient at taking them apart, should his mind be set to such a purpose.' You gonna be a good boy and behave now?"

Ranma couldn't exactly recall where she might have heard or read that quote, but it more than served its dually intended purpose, making herself look cool, and the drunk stupid. Perhaps noticing this himself, the man bellowed and tugged his zanpakuto free of the sheath.

Ranma snapped the book shut, and everything seemed to come to a stop as she turned her head over her shoulder, eyes cold.

"You draw? Here? You dare?" She asked, frostily. "You would truly choose to so exacerbate your circumstances? I am not, by nature, either kind or forgiving to those who raise either hand or steel against me, and have been _unnaturally_ lenient thus far. And yet you, in the heart of another division, surrounded on all sides, dare...? Perhaps there is simply nothing between your ears but muscle. I shall offer you this one, final opportunity to quietly return to your assigned cot and trouble your minders no more."

The drunk snorted and spat idly to the side. Ranma's eyes narrowed, and there was a rasp of metal as she drew her own zanpakuto.

"So be it, then. 'A fool will not heed wisdom, lest it be preceded with humiliation.' Take heart, however. I shall not deliberately target your vitals, or do anything which would cause the instant and irrevocable death of a comrade in arms, even one such as yourself.. However, as we are indeed the division of healers, with medics at every side... perhaps it is to your misfortune, as I therefore see no need at all to restrain myself in any way aside from sparing you your life. Your dignity, you may never see again. I will _teach_ you to show some measure of _respect_ to those who may yet control whether you live or die."

'You _do_ remember you're supposed to be just a mediocre academy student, right?' Kagami pointed out, and Ranma hesitated just a moment as she recalled that, her battle plan changing significantly.

"Like to _talk_!" The drunk snarled, lashing out with his blade.

Rather than the smooth, humiliating deflection and counter that she'd planned on using, Ranma hesitated for just a moment at the strike before dodging. Unfortunately, her opponent was far more adept with his blade than he was unarmed, and even in what should have been a drunken and bleary haze he managed to shift his thrust into a second, more lethal slash. Fast.... it was _too_ fast, and accurate enough that by all rights the blow _should_ take off the head of a recent graduate like she was pretending to be, previous displays of acrobatics aside.

Time seemed to almost freeze, and her mind went into a frenzied whirl. She couldn't just slide out of the way, like she normally would, and continue the fight. If she did, then the jig would certainly be up, and she had no intention of discovering soul society's policy on infiltrators firsthand. But if she didn't dodge it, then she was dead for sure. The only option was to feign a one-in-a-million chance, an unnatural stroke of luck for the new girl. Clumsily stumbling backwards.... no, no she realized immediately after the thought formed that the idea was no good. That would be completely out of character, and more, leave her open to another follow-up stab. A backwards roll or squatting was only marginally better of an idea. She needed to finish this, finish it now, before things got out of hand and her cover was in danger.

She leaned back, as far as she could go, in a calculated attempt to dodge the blade. Not quite enough. This would hurt... she opened her mouth, unwilling to lose any teeth, having been unable to research if they could be regrown with healing arts.

_PAIN_. Pain, as the last bit of the blade passed through first one cheek, then the next. For the briefest of moments, she could _taste_ the metallic tang of blood and feel the zanpakuto's steel as it brushed gently over the top of her tongue. Fortunately enough, the drunk had extended just enough that he couldn't shift again into another lethal blow, this time a thrust she could almost see coming and piercing the back of her throat, and wasn't mentally swift enough at the moment to change his footing to allow that sort of a maneuver. _That_, there would have been no way she could have pulled a 'lucky' escape from, so soon after the last, and expect her cover to actually hold.

Kagami wanted to kill him, and deeply regretted bringing up her previous point and recalling attention to their subterfuges. Ranma, for her part, could almost hear Zero's enraged screech after discovering the wounds this idiot maneuver had left on her master's _face_, and the browbeating that would follow, as well as a renewed determination not to let her go _anywhere_ alone. Wonderful... it had been hard enough to convince her that she was, in fact, capable of taking care of herself the first time. Not for the first time, she was in almost full agreement with her reflection.

She restrained herself, however, and took advantage of the huge opening following in the wake of the drunk's blow only to lung forward and bury steel into the man's shoulder, rather than heart, as her reflection and both swords urged, twisting sharply to send a spasm of agony down the man's arm, triggering involuntary muscle twitches as his blade flew free of suddenly loose fingers, spinning aside to lodge itself point-first in the floor.

Both his arms were useless now, but Ranma didn't let up the assault, wrenching her blade free and deliberately continuing the use of her sword as a sort of red haze went down, beating him with the flat and blunt sides of the blade, only occasionally leaving a gash or fresh stab wound. He'd made this _personal_, and it was a wonderful release of pent-up aggression.

When the haze cleared, she was breathing heavily, her hair had come undone from its braid at some pont and was hanging about her head and face like a veil, sticky with blood, the drunk was an unconscious mass of bruises, she had one foot all but buried in the unconscious man's crotch, and the rest of the division was several wary, wide-eyed steps back from where they'd been before the new girl's berserk rage had set in.

She carefully wiped her blade on the clothes of her unconscious opponent and sheated it before reaching up to her throbbing face and wincing.

"That's.... gonna leave marks." She grumbled softly, feeling the fortunately smooth cuts, blood rapidly coating those fingers. The scars would be small, but highly visible. "Great. Guess that's what I get for trying to show off. Okay people, I need a sterilized suture kit and disinfectants here... and, I dunno, someone sterilize a stapler or something for this bozo and with any luck we can have him mostly fixed and ship him back to his own division before he even wakes up."

The unseated shinigami around her rushed to fulfil the requests, driven by a combination of a hefty dose of fear and a dash of wary respect for the scary redhead.

xxx

They'd thought she was joking about the stapler, and although they had gone along and brought it, as well as a second suture kit for after the giggles had died down, she hadn't been. The orderly had gone a sort of green shade when she'd casually stapled the eleventh's gashes and stab wounds shut, then equally calmly sewed her cheeks back together.

Ranma didn't get why. When you got right down to it, the staples held almost as well as the sutures and, while both had a bit of trickiness to removing, they were much quicker and easier to put in place.

Tales of the incident had, by the time she finished and returned to the library to await further orders and study, traveled throughout the entirety of Fourth division and had begun to slowly circulate outside of it as well. A generous estimation would say that within twenty four hours, everyone within the central city would have heard about the new nurse with the really short fuse.

Seventh seat Yamada Hanatarou wasn't sure why he'd been invited to a private tea and chat with the Captain, vice captain, and third seat of his division, and seats four through six had been passed over, but he was sure that he wasn't going to particularly like the reason.

The refreshments had been nice, though, and the small talk had been fun. Ranma had come up a couple times, briefly, and the third seat had mumbled something that Hanatarou was _sure_ he must have misheard in reference to the redhead. Because really, 'younger, slightly less restrained captain'... that couldn't possibly be what the man had said. Immediate, tooth-clicking shut-uppery after just a mild, gentle glance the third seat's way aside.

"Our new recruit seems rather exuberant." Unohana gently remarked, carefully pouring out a new round of tea. "Some people have sent in requests that she be transfered to 'a division more suited for her', although I am unsure how they believe they might force her to agree to such a transfer. Ah. What do you think, Hanatarou-kun?"

He considered that for a moment, allowing a brief smile to cross his face as the idea of not working so closely with the scary redhead floated through his mind. Then his thoughts ventured towards what other divisions she might end up in, and the grin turned sickly. A horrible ocean of eleventh toughs led by a cackling redhead and a scarred behemoth with a pink blur hanging tightly to his coat drifted through his mind and he forcefully wrenched himself back to reality.

"I, er, believe that it would perhaps be best to allow all the new recruits another week or two to settle in before we consider speaking with any of them on whether or not there would be any division they would prefer to transfer to..." except eleventh. "... and perhaps consider speaking with other amenable captains at a later date..." except Kenpachi. ".... but put off actually introducing any of them to other divisions or captains until that time." Especially eleventh and Kenpachi. And maybe Mayuri, because nobody really deserved something like that when a quick, painless execution would do instead, but primarily the point was keeping the scary girl in a position where she was more ally than enemy.

"I see." Unohana mused, then blinked. "Oh... it seems Zaraki-dono has arrived. He did mention he'd like a word with Saotome-san, after he heard about the little incident."

Hanatarou spilled hot tea all over his lap.

xxx

"Hear you're pretty tough, little lady." The eyepatched, heavily scarred, very imposing man in front of her leered down. Ranma tried not to so much as bat an eye, but with all the loose energy pouring out of the freak, she was having vivid glue-factory-vat flashbacks.

Actually, now that she thought about it, many of Genma's training methods seemed to fit a certain theme.... she brushed the idle thought off and focused on doing what she could to alleviate the near-palpable pressure. After a moment she started to figure out the trick.

"Wouldn't neccessarily say that." She demurred. "Guy was drunk. I'm sure if he was sober and in full possession of his faculties...." She trailed off, physically unable to actually go so far as to say she couldn't take him on, but more than willing to pull the whole deception thing.

"Heh. Didn't think much of her at first, captain..." the bald lackey of captain eyepatch said. "... but she adapted to your Reiatsu pretty damn quick. Might be something there after all."

Damn. Damn, damn, damn. She'd screwed up, and could almost see her cover falling apart... but then, it was probably worth it to not have to behave like an idiot with heatstroke whenever this guy was around. The guy with the feathers just seemed amused, though, but the big guy and the bald guy were leering predatorily, and the pink child... wait, huh?

"Gonna play with her, Ken-chan?" the tiny girl chirped, having clambered up to his shoulder. "Gonna cut her up?"

'.... Wow.' Kagami said dumbly. 'I think I just got a jolt of how other people feel about us and Zero. It's kinda creepy from this side of things.'

"Haven't decided yet." The captain mused, rubbing his chin. He frowned. "You looking at something?" He asked, still staring at Ranma, who only then realized she was staring awkwardly back.

"Ah? Sorry, it's just... you have bells in your hair." She noted, suddenly realizing that this was so.

"Do you have a... problem with that?" He rumbled dangerously.

"Not particularly. It's just... I can't think of any purpose for them. They don't seem to be particularly heavy, so it isn't an impromptu bludgeon, there don't seem to be any sharp edges or pop out spikes, I suppose the glare off the metal might be able to momentarily blind someone if they were polished to be shiny enough, but they aren't.... they're just... bells. Why?" She rambled, honestly confused on this point.

A sort of slow rumbling came from Kenpachi, building up into a series of barking noises that it took a moment to identify as amused laughter.

"I like you! I've decided. You don't seem like much, but I'll put you to the test."

Yachiru hopped down, and Kenpachi pulled his robe open to bare his chest. Fortunately enough, it was obvious that his intent wasn't seduction... she hoped.

"Draw your sword. Hit me. I'll give you a free blow. If you can cut me, great! If you can hurt me badly enough, that's even better! And if you manage to kill me somehow, that would be fantastic, but I'm not holding out hope there!"

Ranma blinked slowly at the masochistic request.

"Ah... allow me to rephrase that to see if I understand, sir. You're not just asking, but ordering me to hit you as hard as I can, in the most pain inducing manner that I can manage?"

"That's right!" Kenpachi barked. "Get to it!"

Ranma shrugged wryly.

"Well... you're the captain, I suppose."

In the next moment, as Ranma launched her attack, different observers saw different things. Ikkaku, for example, had a vision of two walnuts suddenly smashed violently apart. Yachiru could have sworn that, for the briefest of moments, neon letters spelling out the words 'Super-Secret Critical Weak Point' flashed into being, then dissolved. What Yumichika saw need not be mentioned or described in detail. All three crossed their hands over themselves and winced in sympathy.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Ranma yelled at the top of her lungs, hopping on her good foot as she clutched at the one she had used to perpetrate the assault, which was now throbbing pretty badly. For his part, Kenpachi had stopped breathing, eyes glazed over, for a few moments before he composed himself.

"I-" He started, voice at least half an octave higher than he'd intended, before breaking out in coughs to cover it and trying again.

"I _want_ you!" he snarled greedily, eyes flashing.

"Keep in mind, I have _two_ feet."

"In my division!" Kenpachi hastily qualified, verbally backpedaling. "Although, for that matter, uh, would you, uh, like dinner or something?" He finished sheepishly, not at all sure what he was doing, and probably giving his male subordinates heart attacks.

Ranma's eyebrows crept to her hairline, and Kagami seemed completely at a loss for words.

"A-Ah?" She stammered, the conversation not having gone at all the way she'd intended.... although she wasn't sure she could have figured out a good way for this conversation to have gone anyway. "Er... how to put this... well, on the one hand, I don't mind not having to pay for my own food..." Kenpachi was looking almost unreasonably hopeful, and she realized that she had to nip this problem right in the goddamn bud before it grew out of her control. "But on the other, and I'm putting this in deliberately harsh words so there's absolutely no chance that you might misunderstand me, I'm a raging bull-dyke lesbian, and I would sooner carve out my own lungs than put out for you, so you're really barking up the wrong tree, here."

Kenpachi mulled the information over for several long, uncomfortable moments.

"How about if I was a girl?" He eventually ventured, somehow making the silence even _more_ uncomfortable awkward.

'.......................................' Kagami stated eloquently.

Ranma couldn't help but agree, and turned and left the area without a word.

"So.... is that a yes?" Kenpachi eventually asked, more than a minute after she'd actually left.

"W-well.... It's.... It's not a no, as such, strictly speaking..." Yumichika managed, cursing his treacherous tongue, but at the same time not really able to find anything better to say, and equally unable to simply remain silent.

Ikkaku appeared to have actually fainted while standing, and Yachiru was poking him with a stick she'd found somewhere. They would be of no help.

"Then.... do you think I should ask again, or...?"

"Oh, look, a butterfly!" Yumichika blatantly redirected the conversation. "I'm pretty sure it's for you!"

It was, as apparently a captain's meeting had been called, buying the fifth seat enough time to make convincing, compelling arguments that would hopefully keep the captain from cutting him into bite-sized chunks if he decided to ask for advice again later.

xxx

"Are, are you sure that this doesn't need painkillers?" The man hesitantly wondered, glancing between avenues of escape.

"Oh, don't be such a big baby." Ranma chided. "You're eleventh division, right tough guy? This won't be a problem."

"It won't hurt?"

"Hey, did I say that? It'll hurt like hell. Suck it up and deal, pansy."

Ranma clicked the pair of pliers in her hand ominously, and the spooked shinigami was out the window in the next eyeblink.

"Humph. No problem going out and getting into barroom fights, but so anxious over just removing an embedded splinter." The woman assigned to evaluate Ranma's bedside manner declared.

"Splinter, what?" Ranma wondered. "I was told to give the guy a prostate exam."

"Ahahaha, 'prostate exam'." The senior medic snorted. "Haha, that's a good... that's a... that... you aren't joking at all, are you."

Ranma shook her head somberly, and the amusement died a painful death. The senior medic tried to speak, but after holding her mouth open a few moments, realized she simply didn't know how to adequately put what she was going through into mere words, and then gesticulated wildly for a few seconds.

"I... you... hng! Gah! _Pliers!?_ I don't even... Get. Out."

Ranma quietly left.

xxx

It was obvious, through the meeting, that Kenpachi was more than a little distracted. This was made glaringly more so as, when the alarm was sounded along with a report of Ryoka invaders, he not only didn't drop everything and run out the door like a bloodthirsty madman, which, to be perfectly honest, he usually was, he didn't even fidget as he remained stationary, lost in thought.

"Kenpachi." Yamamoto barked after all the other captains had left, and the other man was still standing there vacantly. "Were you paying any attention during the meeting?"

"No sir!" Was the reply as he snapped out of his trance, followed with a sullen, half-hearted "Sorry, sir."

It was the apology, more than anything else, which clued the captain commander in that something was very seriously wrong.

"You seem troubled, Kenpachi. Care to talk about it?"

"I.... yeah, alright, old man. See, I heard about this interesting recruit in fourth, and I went to check her out. Long story short, I offered to let her take a shot at me, and she did. She nutted me, and I wasn't expecting it at all, and it hurt worse than anything anyone's managed to do to me in the past hundred years. Sir, I..... I think I may be in love."

"Kenpachi. Stop talking."

"It's just, ever since, I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. Her cold eyes, that sparkling glimmer of malice when I confirmed my offer for her, the way she clutched her sword to draw attention from the real attack, how the world went white for just a moment of blissful agony as she drove her foot into-"

"_Kenpachi_." Yamamoto insisted, clutching at the wood of his false staff, hiding Ryuujin Jakka within. "Stop _talking_."

There was a long moment of awkward silence between the two as Yamamoto digested the information and did the best he could to completely and utterly repress the tidbits he'd rather not have gleaned about his subordinate.

"Woman trouble, then. I'm afraid I won't be of much help. But I can say this, that agonizing over things won't make any difference in the long run. If you're interested in this woman, then you must do what you can to catch her interest in return. Just be sure to keep it quiet." He winked at the eyepatched man. "Technically, fraternization with subordinates, your own or others, is expressly forbidden, but after the first few times the captains all tried to mutiny against me and I had them replaced, that particular rule hasn't been strictly enforced. I just want plausible deniability, all right?"

"Thank you, sir! But, now that that's through, I wonder how I'm going to manage turning myself into a woman for her..." Kenpachi mused.

"What did I _just_ say about _talking_, Kenpachi?" Yamamoto snapped. "Every time you open your mouth, something worse than the last time spews out..."

The old man left, trailing off into incoherent grumbles. Kenpachi followed shortly afterwards, only to pause as one of Soi Fon's ninja zipped past at almost untrackable speeds, leaving a tiny, folded over bit of paper in his wake.

xxx

The note had read 'Talk to Mayuri'. Nothing more. After the initial nonplussed reaction to the ninja, Kenpachi hadn't actually been all that surprised to realize that it had been listening in to the private conversation. That was just what second division did, and he'd apparently decided to help out, somehow.

If only the help didn't involve Mayuri... oh well. He'd just have to suck it up and deal, and at the very least he'd left Yachiru asleep, so the awkwardness should theoretically be minimized.

"Hiya, clownface." He said as he stepped into Mayuri's office, bare sword resting on one shoulder, letting the door swing shut behind him.

"Zaraki." the other captain drawled in disgust. "I'm afraid I'm quite busy, so no matter how bored you may be, or what you may mistakenly have decided I'm responsible for, I'm simply not available to put you into Fourth's poison ward at the moment."

"S'not a problem." Kenpachi grunted, sheathing the blade as he sat down across the desk. "S'just people ask less questions about 'where I'm going' or 'what I'm doing' when I've got a sword out and smile on. Actually, only question I get like that is something on the lines of 'please, please, please say you aren't looking for me'. But anyway, I'm here because I need your help, in a personal matter."

"Oh?" Mayuri all but purred, smiling widely. "Now this _is_ interesting. The esteemed Zaraki Kenpachi seeking _my_ aid..." The grin suddenly went fixed and wooden. "In... matters of a 'personal' nature.... oh god. Please tell me I'm misinterpreting the nature of your request?" He almost whimpered.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I was told to talk to you about it, in the note the ninja slipped me."

"Oh god." Mayuri sagged into his chair, rubbing at the bridge of his nose, then pulled an earpiece out of a drawer and inserted it as he pressed down on a button. "Nemu. Fifteen milliliters of Lethe extract in a syringe, and the sample set..... The _sample set_..... You know _exactly_ which sample set I'm referring to, you insuffereable..."

Mayuri paused and took several deep, calming breaths before continuing.

"The 'toy box', Nemu." He hissed softly. "Yes. Yes, _that_ sample set.... I _did_ say so right from the sta....." He paused, then hit the button again. "You _hung up_ on me? How dare you, you....!"

Mayuri ground his teeth and pulled the earpiece free as the cloned second in command apparently hung up on him for the second time.

"I hate that girl _so much_." He snarled. "How anything with a fragment of _my_ soul powering it can be so disgustingly irritating, I don't even...Ugh. In any case, as you've probably realized, Yamamoto pays us all equal amounts, ignoring that my division has the highest neccessary expenditures in the course of our work. "Look at Kyoraku's division." He says. "_They_ haven't needed to ask for any extra cash in all the time he's been captain." He says. "You could learn a thing or two from his economics." He says. _He never needs more money because the only thing that division ever spends surplus currency on is enough cheap booze to keep the whole division smashed until the next paycheck comes around!_" Mayuri snarled, slipping into a rant, knuckles going white before he shook it off. "Damn old man simply refuses to grasp that.... I'm losing my focus. In any case, I can't imagine where my predecessor got his funding from, probably that noblewoman he kept shmoozing around with, but it was only a week after I took office before this division was completely in the red and spiraling towards having debts to all the other divisions with less pressing need for cash."

Nemu opened the door and wheeled an entire cabinet into the room, securing the door behind her.

"In any case, desperate times lead to desperate measures, and I discovered through chance that there was actually something of a market-"

"A very large market." Nemu corrected.

"Yes, _thank you for reminding me_ Nemu, a _very large_ market for the results of some experiments that I had initially deemed failures and useless. Go on, open the damn thing up. I know you want to, just get it over with already." He grumbled.

Nemu happily did so, and Kenpachi stared in a sort of awestruck horror.

"That thing in the goldfish bowl on the second shelf... is that an octopus?" He wondered aloud.

"Once." Mayuri grudgingly admitted.

"After the treatment, intended to be a possible upgrade to current gigai tech, the specimen developed a significantly increased elasticity..." Nemu demonstrated by fishing the once-octopus out of the bowl and stretching it to the full extent of her armspan before allowing it to snap back to its normal three or four inchish size. ".... and a new ability to gain nutrition directly from the reishi of the surrounding environs, causing a near total degeneration of the specimen's previous digestive tract. The experiment itself was deemed a failure as was intended, however one of the new recruits found further use for the specimen after reading through the data on it, and it became the first and still our most successful selling item. It's garnered from customers the affectionate nickname of 'the octo-pocket-p-'"

"It's still alive and it has _tentacles_." Kenpachi pointed out, about as reasonably as he could manage at the moment. "Lots of tentacles, with suckers on!"

"It makes for a fascinatingly unique experience." Nemu insisted, her entire bearing having shifted at some point to scream 'used car salesman'. "I would be more than happy to demonstrate its use, or allow you to test the prod-"

"No!"

"Very well." She stated unflappably. "We stock a wide variety of items for a number of tastes. Perhaps I can interest you in the-"

"No! I don't want to see any more of your box of horrors!" Kenpachi insisted, some portion of his hindbrain noting Mayuri's palpable relief at the statement, and Nemu's almost as obvious disappointment. "I just want something to turn me into a woman for a little while!"

"Top left drawer." Mayuri instructed.

"Of course. Our second best seller. I might have known." Nemu agreed, removing the large jar. "Unfortunate that the experiments attempting to duplicate it in a full female-to-male shift have as yet been unsuccessful. While the 'Dixie Chick' effect is enough of a substitute for the most part, enough discreet inquiries remain that there would be at least a thirty percent increase in sale profits if we could make that breakthrough. In any case, please enjoy your purchase with our compliments. Each pill lasts for a full six hours of curious, exploratory fun, and refills can be purchased at half off so long as you return with the original jar."

"I'll have Nemu bill you privately, and I'll give you another ten percent off the initial purchase if you get out _right now_ so I can get to work on pretending this _never, ever actually happened_." Mayuri offered.

Kenpachi was gone long before he'd finished the sentence, and Nemu quickly closed up shop. Mayuri extended a hand and she dropped a small syringe into it before wheeling the cabinet out and, presumably, back to storage. Or her quarters, or wherever it was that she kept the thing when she wasn't making a sale. He shuddered, once again wondering just _how_ the girl.... as the wheel noises faded until he couldn't hear them anymore, he uncapped the syringe and plunged it into the vein of his throat, injecting the contents, then removing the needle and...

And...

What had he been doing? He recalled working on an important piece of paperwork, and now he was sitting here and holding-_oh_. A customer had stopped by, then.

Not for the first time, he rejoiced that he'd discovered this little miracle drug, which could wipe the memories of even shinigami with captain class reiatsu, and kept the secret to himself. It couldn't replace the empty space with plausible memories, of course, or even implausible ones, so it wasn't at all difficult for someone to piece together that they were missing time, and with enough effort get those memories back... but if you wanted to _not remember_ something, and you only ever used it when something happened that you didn't want to remember, then you knew enough not to even try to figure out what had filled that missing time, and it was something of a godsend.

In a slightly better mood, Mayuri discarded the empty syringe and returned to his paperwork.

xxx

A.N.

So. This chapter. Uh.

Anyway, it started when I got a review suggesting that Hanatarou get a crush on Ranma or something. Or two or three of them, I can't remember. Anyway, I was going to reject the idea out of hand, because I'm trying to avoid any pairings, kinda, or even suggest pairings, but I realized that would actually be kinda funny.

So I started along those lines, and then I was all 'this isn't funny _enough_' and 'what would be funnier?' as I ran through a potential list of implausible romance candidates, none of which were quite right... Then Kenpachi Happened. And then, after beating the idea a bit with a hammer to make it fit, This Chapter Happened, in a sort of giggly blur. _This is why you shouldn't give me ideas, people!_

So now you know! And while I'm not entirely sure I managed to keep everyone as in character as I could have, I liked it.

Also, Joker Smile. I can't remember what the hell I was thinking about when that happened, but with luck I'll remember. If I don't, hell... I'll just have the scars heal to be almost imperceptible if you don't know they're there or something. I'll figure it out.


	12. Chapter 12

There was shundo, which was a decently advanced martial arts technique in which you moved short distances so fast that to the untrained eye, it seemed the user had teleported.

There was shunpo, which, as detailed in one of the few texts in the medical library that apparently nobody had caught on yet didn't quite match the rather specific criteria of the place, was a decently advanced shinigami skill, in which the user's speed was amplified to the point that they could move short distances so swiftly that to the untrained eye, it seemed they had teleported.

When all the details were boiled down, they were essentially the same technique, albeit with miniscule differences and, of course, the fact that they were based on the use of completely different energy sources..

Having already learned one of the two techniques had accelerated her learning the other, and, after a small amount of consideration and tinkering, she had decided to find out what happened when someone used both techniques at the same time.

Fast. FAST.

After prying herself loose from the new, Ranma-shaped dent in the wall, all Ranma could note was that when you added shundo and shunpo, you got Really Damn Fast. At the very least, more than the sum of the two parts would imply. It wasn't an additive increase. It wasn't even multiplicative... it was closer to exponential.

It was also, unfortunately enough, a great strain upon her body to use and carried risks of the 'sudden interference of walls' variety. As such, it would probably take a great deal of practice before she was prepared to use that particular trump card in any sort of combat situation.

She idly wondered what all the hammer-on-wood racket was about as she made her way slowly back to her personal quarters, having put off the reuniting with Zero for too long already.

There was a long moment of awkward silence when she entered, as the doll's eyes widened slowly. It was broken as she swung one pointing arm around.

"Muh... muh-muh-muh... Master's _beautiful face_! What have they _done_? I'll butcher every last-!" Zero shrilled at the top of her lungs.

It was much later that Ranma finally managed to get to sleep, Zero having finally settled down and agreed not to kill anyone _yet_, but once more completely insistent on being with Master wherever she went, no matter if it might hurt her cover any. And there would _most certainly_ not be any repeats of this taking hits to preserve her false identity nonsense.

She stared balefully at the stitches on Ranma's cheek for the entire night.

xxx

Mahoranma

Tatsuki Has A Potty Mouth! And, you know, plot happens, but it's probably not as interesting as Tatsuki swearing.

xxx

"Tatsuki-dono... try harder."

Tatsuki bit off a snarl, knowing that the distraction of yelling at the pair of goons would cause a catastrophic collapse of the spiritron shell she had formed, followed by an explosion.

She comforted herself with the knowledge that, at the very least, she was catching on to the trick of it far, far faster than Ichigo.

Another hour of effort did it, and she left to go eat and sleep, undisturbed by the shaking ground and loud 'boom' that came with Ichigo finally figuring out how to make the shell, with assistance.

In the morning, she mostly zoned everything out as they assembled and were fired from that ridiculously huge cannon, right up until...

"Dammit, Kurosaki! You made me read the same line twice!" Ganju howled angrily.

Tatsuki flinched as she broke from her morning stupor, the world around her becoming crystal clear as she realized the implications of that statement just in time to join the rest in ignoring synchronization and simply shoving as much power as they could into the shell protecting them.

Impact.

Tatsuki fought through the maelstrom of force, and nearly managed to reunite with the group before the final blast came, scattering them across the city. She managed to right herself as she came in for a landing, and braced for impact.

As it turned out, it didn't do much good. As she relaxed, having landed in relative safety in the center of a new spiderweb of fractures in the ground, there was an ominous creak. Before she could brace herself again the earth below her gave way, and she tumbled awkwardly into the sewers below.

Battered and now half buried in dirt and paving, Tatsuki lost consciousness. When she woke, it was behind bars.

Ranma smiled at her from the other side in the same manner a teacher would smile at the stupidest whelp they had _ever_ had the misfortune to be pressed into instructing, matched perfectly with the doll riding her shoulder.

"Hiya. That was... let me see, fifteen minutes between crashing through the forcefield and being taken in by a really surprised sewer scrubber? Nice. And you lost consciousness without even having to fight. I'm _real_ impressed, little miss invader. You guys must have put all _kinds_ of thought into this idea."

"_Choke_ on a _cock_ and _die_, you fucking _whore_!" Tatsuki snarled, frustrated both by the turn of events and that Ranma was absolutely correct that they hadn't made plans to deal with anything that might happen in between getting in and getting out.

"Temper, temper." Ranma snarked. "You should know, though..."

"Saotome-san." A gentle voice interrupted. "It's not nice to bait the prisoners. Isn't there something more important that you could be doing?"

".... Yeah. Sure thing Captain." Ranma said after a long moment. "Just thought the Invader might be pleased to know that while her buddies are still running loose right now, it's only a matter of time before she sees them again... and that with those cuffs sucking up all her spirit energy, she can't possibly escape on her own. I guess I'll be off, then."

"Quite. Twelfth division has had a significant chemical spillage, and your name was drawn for the duty."

Tatsuki was the only one to see the sparkle of delight enter the redhead's eyes, and couldn't be quite sure what it meant. But it definitely couldn't be a good thing. Shortly after Ranma left, the captain followed suit, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

"So this is where you went.... huh. I guess it makes some sense. Definitely doing a better job..." She shook her head softly. "Heh. Still babying me along, too. So the cuffs drain spiritual energy? That cuts down on my options, alright. I'd have found that out on my own, though. This just gives me a little more time."

Tatsuki closed her eyes, focusing within, as she had been taught. After a moment, they shot open, and she tore her arms sharply away from each other, snapping the short chain holding the cuffs together as though it were no more than a paperclip. In the next moment, she slapped her arms together again, and the cuffs splintered with a sharp crack, the pieces scraping against her wrists as they tumbled to the floor.

"Guess I should thank sensei later." She decided. "If I only had spiritual energy to rely on, I'd have been in a pretty tight spot. Lucky..."

xxx

"You're doing it wrong." Ranma noted some time later, looking over the shoulder of a nameless twelfth division newbie, who's grip on the scalpel tightened as he glowered down at the moaning wreck of what had once been an average Hollow.

"What would you know about it? You're just-!"

"A healer with a very significant amount of medical and simple anatomical knowledge? Yes. Yes I am. And if you try to cut there, you'll nick the artery, it'll bleed out within a minute, and this experiment will have become a total waste of time. Give it another millimeter or two."

The newbie snorted and stubbornly ignored her, slicing a careful, perfectly straight line into the Hollow's flesh, smirking as he completed it without apparent incident and drew the scalpel away. His face fell when, with the creature's next raspy breath, blood began to pour rapidly from the incision.

"See?" Ranma said smugly, before setting her hand onto the wound and knitting it together again with a soft glow. "And since I'm feeling generous, you can have another shot. With luck, you might yet be able to make it through this without screwing up completely."

"I loathe you." The nameless twelfth grumbled softly.

"Duly noted! My work here is complete."

"Ahem."

Both of them turned, the nameless goon going pale when he realized that his face-painted captain had been standing behind them for an indeterminate period of time.

"You." Mayuri said calmly, pointing at the goon. "I'm watching. Botch this again, and you'll be seeing this experiment from an alternate point of view. And you, redhead. A word, in my office. Follow me."

Ranma shrugged and followed the man, while Zero waved back at the goon and was studiously ignored.

"Tea?" The captain offered, and Ranma calmly accepted, sipping carefully at the unrecognized blend. "Very good. Now, I'd like to ask why you're making a nuisance of yourself about my division."

"I was sent here to clean up a chemical spill."

"Yes. According to witnesses, you finished three hours ago. Why are you still here?"

"Oh, no reason." Ranma responded. "A couple of things looked interesting, there's not many patients around back at fourth, I've read the whole library already, and the whole 'menial chores' thing just doesn't do it for me, you know? Honestly, I was just trying to figure out where _your_ library might be."

"That's restricted to seated officers of this division, and guests of either myself or the vice-captain." Mayuri rebuffed. "And approximately half an hour after you finished cleaning up the chemical spill, the _entire_ eleventh division, save its captain and vice-captain, and a few stragglers who were off-duty, were admitted to fourth division for treatment of wounds incurred battling the intruders."

"Really. That's such a shame." Ranma noted idly, ignoring the insinuation that she should be dropping everything to run to assist. Mayuri snorted at her lack of reaction.

"Second question. Why have the paralytics in your tea not yet taken effect?"

"What, that? I run a self-diagnostic every time I eat or drink something I didnt personally prepare, and remove any poisons that may be there before they can do any harm. I've been doing so since the moment I discovered that particular application of the healing kido."

"Master is paranoid!" Zero confirmed.

"On that note, I also ping that diagnostic once every sixty seconds as a simple control exersize, and so I'm afraid the invisible, odorless knockout gas you've been flooding this room won't be having any effect either. Sorry. But I wouldn't have noticed at all if I wasn't in that habit, so there's that to consider. But what would you have done if it had worked?"

"Oh, I have several experiments that have been awaiting a... volunteer." Mayuri stated ominously.

Ranma shrugged, grin not even twitching.

"I see." Mayuri said dryly, changing the subject. "An intriguing use of that kido, I'll admit... I don't believe I've ever heard of anything like it."

"Mm... well, I hate to say it..." Ranma began, in a tone that hinted that she didn't really hate to say it at all. "But most of Fourth division is pretty clinically depressed about their lot in life, just drudging along between janitorial duties and being heckled by the other divisions for being such pathetic losers. They can't really concieve of the idea of thinking outside of their nice little box of ruts, and so they never do anything particularly noteworthy, which confirms their relative worthlessness in the eyes of the other divisions. That increases the heckling, which reinforces fourth's depression. An unfortunate cycle. Adding to this is that there is no particular reward for imagination or innovativeness, and they are in fact punished by subtle shunning of a more talented shinigami by the sullen mass of fourth, and peer pressure plays a heavy role in destroying the desire of new recruits to excel. 'Why bother being the best, if it just gets the punishment of more work piled on? Better to simply be capable of getting the job done, but not being particularly better at anything than any other member of the division.'"

Ranma shrugged again.

"To be honest, I havent the slightest idea how promotions might be handled other than by comparison of 'experience', or more simply, that you get promoted after a set amount of time passes. I've certainly not yet seen anything to suggest that 'merit' or 'ability' are taken into any sort of consideration."

"A well thought out rant." Mayuri noted, at the same time Kagami interjected with _"Hey, hey. Don't get distracted, now. We ain't here for promotions, you know."_

There was a short moment of awkward silence, during which Ranma assumed that Mayuri ventilated the gases out of the room, as she suddenly didn't need to flush them out anymore.

"So. Due to your... imaginative use of healing kido, I find the force I can bring to bear suddenly limited." Mayuri admitted. "It seems time to pass threats over for negotiation."

"Excellent! I would like access to your library, if it can be arranged."

"Oho. Direct and upfront with the demands. But I can't just give something for nothing, you know." He pretended to mull the situation over for a moment. "All right... I believe I can allow you entry as a guest. In exchange, however, you must allow me to perform an experiment on you."

He settled back, closed his eyes, and waited patiently for the outraged denial. He waited for several long moments before opening them and realizing that, rather than seeming even slightly offended at the suggestion that she allow herself to be used like a guinea pig, Ranma was actually stroking her chin, seeming very contemplative.

"Exactly what kind of experiment are we talking, here?" She eventually asked, leaving the man dumbfounded.

"Eh...? You... you're serious." The man realized. "Depending on what I say, you're seriously considering going on my lab table in order to further your own goals. Why? You said you were finished with the medical library, but..."

"I hunger for knowledge." Ranma explained. "And I have a cultivated ability when it comes to studying. While I'm reading, I can adjust my own brain such that my memory becomes near-photographic, and I can recall anything I've read that way in perfect detail at any time." She finished smugly

"Hm. That may well be true, and does go some way toward an explanation." Mayuri allowed. "But I was referring more towards the fact that most shinigami are not pleasantly disposed towards the idea of being cut apart in a lab and put back together better. I would call it squeamishness, but few have an objection towards being cut apart _in battle_ and put back together _the same as before_." He grumbled.

"I suppose they would consider it cheating." Ranma ventured.

"Ah. And you don't?"

"Hey! Show him your arm!" Zero interjected chirpily.

"Hm. Do you want him to see it.... or do you just want to see it again yourself, since you haven't for a while?"

"Does it matter? Your arm is awesome! You should totally go back to the stitches-lady and have the other one done!"

"I'll think about it." Ranma demurred. Grinning, she turned the conversation back to Mayuri. "And no... I really don't see it as cheating at all. For the most part. And sometimes, you just have to have a palmed ace, you know?"

"I see...." Mayuri considered for a long moment. "You know, miss Saotome... I think I would like to see it after all. Your arm, that is."

Ranma shrugged, having expected it, and quickly unfastened the concealing glove, leaving her left arm bared for the captains inspection. With a few quick muscle tensings, she silently demonstrated the hidden bone spikes and extended claws.

"Ah... fascinating. It's always interesting to study the work of anther scientist. Is there a name tied to this work of art, by any chance?" Mayuri wondered.

"Fran. Madaraki Fran. And before you ask, as far as I know, she's still alive."

"Ah... almost a shame. She would have made an excellent recruit... not at all like the chaff that keeps getting randomly thrown my way. Is there anything else of note about this?"

"Hm... usually, I like to keep my secret aces secret." Ranma said, mulling it over before shrugging. "But... it's not like it matters. We're on the same side, after all. So... the claws are the vehicles to deliver a payload of a particularly deadly poison, from glands in the fingertips. A similar gland in the thumb produces the antivenom for it, however I havent used that one as often."

Ranma waved a hand and Zero produced a scalpel, likely stolen from either fourth division or during their little saunter through twelfth. She unflinchingly carved open her wrist and peeled the skin back to reveal the layer of glistening bone underneath.

"There's this, too. It's not much protection against direct strikes with enough power behind them to cleave the limb..." She admitted. "But against glancing blows and common accidents, it might as well be a layer of armor protecting the arteries."

"Fascinating." Mayuri said, having warmed up to this conversation. "Miss Madaraki decided on all specifications herself?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Ranma said. "I had just lost the original arm and was still somewhat naive and inexperienced at the time..."

_"This naive, inexperienced portion of your life being... a month ago. If that long."_ The other dryly noted.

"... And I unfortunately didn't think of making any other requests at the time than that she replace the arm I had just lost. Since, I have regretted it, as I've thought up multiple upgrades and seperate features that could have been integrated into the design, but I have unfortunately been unable to look in on miss Madaraki since."

Mayuri was staring dumbly at her by this point.

"Miss Saotome... would you do me the tremendous honor... of bearing my-"

"No." She interrupted flatly, proving that she did, indeed, have limits. Mayuri shook himself lightly.

"In that case... would you mind terribly, if I petitioned the captain-commander for the right to adopt you as my own child?"

"Hm.... If it means I can get into your libraries, and you don't have any particular problem with me keeping my current name, then sure." Ranma decided.

"Excellent. I'll have to make my case before him later today, then. In any case, as for possible experiments..." His eyes flicked over towards the inexplicably talkative doll. Ranma caught it.

"I would like to note right now, that if anyone suggests any fiddling around with Zero, _I will kill your entire division, you included_, whether you've already adopted me or not."

Mayuri hesitated a moment as he calculated the odds of her managing such a feat, factoring in the general 'cannon fodder' nature of his own underlings and the fact that her unique usage of healing kido was essentially the perfect counter to most of his own zanpakuto's abilities even without factoring anything else in, and found them to be uncomfortable. Not that they were particularly high... but neither were they at all outside the realm of possibility.

"Duly noted." He allowed, mentally penciling in the doll as the latest addition to the very short 'off limits' list.

The discussion then turned to potential experiments, and Mayuri found himself delighted further and further with every minute that passed as Ranma dutifully considered every angle of every experiment, further advancing upon them, and bringing up points and issues that he himself had overlooked.

Why, if he hadn't grown Nemu from a surgically removed splinter of his own soul, in a vat, which itself was in a private laboratory which only he could access, and hadn't been overlooking every stage of her development, he would have suspected that the two girls had been switched at birth. Oh well. Obviously there had been some random factor which had flawed the creation process somehow.

In the end, the meeting drew on so long that he ended up canceling his plans to go interrogate the hospitalized elevenths, and had had to make the arrangements for his ambush of a pair of the intruders he'd come across rather more rapidly than he'd have preferred.

"This salve is crap." Ranma remarked idly, poking the wounds of the prone Ikkaku. "But I guess it serves its purpose, if all you want is something to temporarily keep you from bleeding out, and hiding it in the hilt of your zanpakuto is the sort of childishly clever thing I can't imagine you coming up with yourself, for some reason. Still, it degrades unfortunately rapidly, and it doesn't do anything to accelerate your own healing beneath it. Can't be put off, those wounds have to be closed."

Ikkaku grunted with disgust, then twitched as Ranma carefully picked up a stapler. All things considered, he would later reflect that he would probably have preferred to be tended to by any other randomly selected medic, even if it did mean dealing with Kurotsuchi.

Her tardiness in reporting to fourth had been noted, but overlooked, as there were several others who had also been slow to respond, and one or two shinigami that were missing entirely.

xxx

Kenpachi had been disappointed at how difficult it proved to be to find Ranma, and had responded to the frustration in typical Kenpachi fashion. Hunting down something to brutally maim.

"So, kid. I'll give you a free shot. Go on!" Kenpachi growled, leering at the carrot-top intruder.

For his part, rather than respond immediately to the invitation, Ichigo flushed heavily and stammered something incomprehensible as he averted his eyes. Huh. That was new. Kenpachi couldn't help but wonder.... something clicked, and she glanced down to where she had, in habitual fashion, bared her chest to offer a better target.

Oh. Oh, _riiiight_. Tits. That would explain things.

Compounding the simple fact of exposed flesh was that Kenpachi had never been particularly unattractive, when one looked past the facial scars and ridiculous hairstyle, and that had translated. As a she, she admittedly couldn't be called 'beautiful' with such extensive scars and an eyepatch, but she wasn't going to be called anything close to 'hideous', either. If it had to be classified, she was somewhat better than average, with all things added up, and could potentially become a real stunner, given the proper application of makeup and clothes.

Kenpachi didn't particularly appreciate these simple facts at all.

"What? You never seen a pair of tits before?" She barked.

"...... No." Ichigo admitted, flushing all the heavier.

"....... You poor, deprived little runt. Change of plans, I'll just put you out of your misery right away."

Ichigo managed to bring Zangetsu up to block, just in time to watch Kenpachi's blade carve through it like it was made of so much cheese, and continue on through to his torso. Kenpachi shrugged and turned, walking away and wondering whether she would have any luck finding Ranma now that she'd cut someone up.

Five minutes later, she was flat on her back and staring at the sky.

"What the crap just happened?" She mused aloud, confused about the rapid reversal of situations.... no, not reversal, the kid was face-first in the dirt again, but an equalization. She was still musing over where the hell things had gone wrong as Yachiru collected her and changed scenery to the rooftops.

'Okay... cut through his sword and chest. No problem there. Turned to leave. He stood back up. Wait, what? How did... no, think about that later. He stood back up, sword fixed. We fought again... crap if I know how, but suddenly the runt could trade hits with me like nothing. And then we both fell down. Okay, so how....? He was yelling something about the swords power...'

Kenpachi shook her head. Clearly, the correct mode of option was to yell, delireous from bloodloss, at her sword. There was no reply from it... pretty much as expected.

"Well... you're a fine mess." Came a familiar voice, just as she was ready to black out. Ranma. The recognition forced her eyes back open to see that the redhead was calmly looking down at the battlefield below, smirking.

"Oh. The intruder is getting away. With my superior's assistance." She remarked dryly. "Personally, I'm surprised. Must be charisma. Even so, if he gets caught helping an intruder... tsk, tsk. Naughty, naughty."

Ranma grinned and turned to inspect Kenpachi.

"Hm. Not bad." She eventually decided. "I'll admit I'm a bit curious about just how you pulled this off..." She shrugged, and poked Kenpachi's new features dubiously. "... But damn. That's dedication. Or crazy obsession. Either way, I guess I might let you buy me dinner one of these days after all. Right now, though, lets just see about making sure you don't die, alright?"

Kenpachi grunted, and Yachiru stepped out of the way in order to let Ranma make with the healing. There was an amiable silence as flesh knitted itself together.

"Did you know..." Ranma offered. ".. that sound doesn't travel through a vacuum?"

Neither of them looked particularly interested, but Ranma soldiered on.

"It's because sound has to have something to travel through in order to reach your ears. Air works well enough, but if there's literally nothing for it to travel through, then there's no sound. Simple, huh? It's... kind of the same with zanpakuto."

_Now_ their interest was caught.

"It's not an identical comparison, but there has to be a certain level of spiritual power behind the wielder before their zanpakuto can make themselves heard. But that's not so important... what you should think about is the other end of the spectrum."

Ranma shrugged, finished with the healing, and sat back.

"It's true that if there's nothing, sound can't travel through it. It's also true... that if there is _too much_ of anything in the way, then the sound won't get anywhere."

Kenpachi's eyes flickered somewhat, as she seemed to catch on.

"Once again... it's not a perfect parallel, and it's significantly rarer than the inverse... but if the wielder has _too much_ spiritual power behind them, then it's as difficult for it to make itself heard as in situations where the wielder has too little. Well... for the first contact, at least." Ranma admitted. "Once that's over with, the relationship shifts somewhat."

"So.... it can't hear me?"

"Quite the reverse." Ranma stated. "It's difficult to explain... but even your softest whisper, it can hear as though you howled it at the top of your lungs, directly into its ears. But in contrast... no matter how long or hard it screams, you've as little chance of hearing as if it were whispering from across an open field during a thunderstorm."

"Then there's nothing I can do." Kenpachi realized somberly.

"Hm. Now, I _didn't_ say that..." Ranma said, grinning again. "It's just that more traditional means won't be of much help to you. It can't make you hear it, so it can't simply reach out to draw you into your inner world with it. You could try meditating to reach that world on your own, but that would take a great deal of patient effort. I might just have a little shortcut."

"Do it."

"What... no pressing for details? You don't want to hear the risks involved?"

"I don't care." Kenpachi stated flatly. "So go ahead. Do it."

Ranma grinned and slowly drew her zanpakuto.

"I'll have to ask you to remain perfectly still. I've never had reason to try this before, and I can only guarantee that it will be painful. Let's begin, shall we?"

In one smooth motion, she shifted her grip and stabbed downwards, impaling the weakened captain through the stomach. And around them, the world went black.

xxx

It was several long moments before Kenpachi opened her eyes again and took in the surroundings and Ranma, who was stroking her chin and staring.

"How very curious. I was sure that you would be male, when we arrived. Hmm... ah, I think it begins to come clear. The soul, the body, and one's self-image are interestingly interwoven. The soul is shaped by the form of the body... the self-image cannot change the body, but can impact the soul's form, but not to anywhere near the degree of the body... I see. That explains...." She paused and shook her head, letting her musing trail off into silence.

"Where are we?" Kenpachi rasped, trying to pierce the veil of fog, sloshing through the knee-deep tides of blood. Her foot nudged something which could only have been a bone of some sort.

"Where? Why... this is your inner world, Kenpachi. I do love what you've done with the place."

"Is it nothing but blood?" Kenpachi wondered, very slightly disturbed, but not honestly capable of claiming any surprise.

"Who knows?" Ranma said, shrugging. "But I'm sure you'll find out. In any case... somewhere in here, you'll find your zanpakuto's spirit. It can't reach out to you... if you want to make any progress, you'll have to find it yourself."

Ranma's form began to flicker, and she frowned.

"Tch. Seems this isn't so easy as.... I have to leave, very soon. But... I'll wish you good luck, all right? I'm sure you'll find it. And with luck, you'll be able to hear..."

Ranma faded entirely in mid-sentence, leaving Kenpachi alone in a knee deep swamp of blood. After a long moment, she snorted, and started walking.

There was no real way of telling just how long she walked through the near-featureless mire. She didn't stop until she realized that she'd passed the same shriveled, leafless black tree three times, despite that she hadn't changed direction even slightly. The landscape looped. Great.

On the plus side, that meant that there was only so much space to search, and it didn't go on forever. Using the tree as a point of reference, she turned and started walking again.

She'd turned several more times before she finally found something. A sheer, circular drop-off to a gravity-defying scoop out of the landscape, the blood maintaining an even, knee-deep level throughout, which would have given any observer who knew and cared about physics histrionics. Kenpachi didn't care, instead focusing her attention on the small island floating above the hollow.

It was made of bones, held together by the grasping roots of a large tree, the only one Kenpachi had seen thus far in this entire bleak landscape which wasn't just still alive, but flourishing with health. If she squinted, she could just barely make out something against the bark... no good. It was too far away.

As she approached, there wasn't any chance to make it out properly either, as with the change of perspective the top of the island and the tree were blotted out entirely. No matter. She'd see whatever it was when she got there.

Thin fibers trailed down from the roots, gently settling into the blood, a bone caught here and there in the tangle somehow. She grabbed a fistful and gave an experimental tug. The fibers held, and after a few more tests to ensure they could bear her weight, she began to haul herself upwards, making her slow way to the bottom of the island, and from there using the makeshift handholds offered by the root system and bones to carefully crawl further upwards, eventually heaving herself over the edge and onto relatively level ground.

She caught her breath and looked up, finally seeing what she'd been unable to make out from afar.

It was a snake. A snake which was not just abnormally large but, in fact, ridiculously huge, coiled about the equally large tree and held in place with thick, heavy vines coiled similarly around itself and massive iron spikes, driven through its body and into the tree, trickles of blood dripping freely from the wounds. One great eye was staring down directly at her.

"Sss... How troublesome." It grumbled to itself around the spike driven through its mouth.

xxx

A.N.

I know it's short. Real life happened. I make no apologies.

Anyhow, Ranma's rapidly shooting upwards in terms of power. If she ever manages to get control of that double shunpo/do technique, it's gonna launch her right up to the heavy hitters all on its own, and it's not like that's going to be the only thing in her bag of tricks. 'Course, that'll be a while yet, if ever... right now, it's basically restricted to 'go _really_ fast that-a-way.... until trees/walls happen'. So yeah.

I like the way Mayuri and Ranma get along. I think of it like a pair of kids playing with play-doh or legos. Except, these are pretty sociopathic kids, and instead of childrens toys, it's horrific abominations and crimes against nature, _but still_.

Yay for gender-specific pronoun induced headaches. Except, no. Boo. Boo! Anyway, I try to go by whether a given person is male or female at the time, when determining whether to put down 'him' or 'her'. And damn if I didn't just realize exactly how weird that sounds.

Anyhow, rapidly heading towards finishing up with the Bleach stuffs. They may play a role of some sort in the future chapters, after Ranma gets back to Mahora, or they might never be seen again. Depends.

So! It's potential future scenes Omake time!

x

Omake Scene 1, Oh, yeah, that makes total-wait, eat what now?:

"Ichigo... you'll slowly be devoured from the inside, by the Hollow within, and lose your mind. When that happens... it's game over." Shinji stated confidently. "Haven't you noticed? By now... the Hollow within you should be growing stronger at unimaginable speed. Come with me... and I'll teach you how to control him."

"Control?" Ranma interrupted sarcastically as she revealed herself. "Are you serious? This is bull. What's the point of sealing away half of yourself?"

"He's right." Ichigo denied. "For a while now... I've been hearing him. Getting louder and louder... not day by day, but at a much faster rate. Even if he hadn't told me, I already know that if this keeps up... he'll devour-"

Ranma slapped him.

"Moron. You are such a moron." She grumbled darkly. "Of _course_ he's yelling at you.... when was the last time you let him out of your head to do anything? If the tables were turned.... after so long, you'd be screaming and hollering at him too!"

"Whether or not that's the truth... it'd never happen." Shinji declared firmly. "The Hollow would be incapable of allowing the other part continued existence. They cannot concieve of co-operation, or partnerships, and barely tolerate subservient relationships. Their first inclination is destruction, and so ours has to be the same in turn, to destroy them first."

Ichigo twitched, a few memorable declarations of 'partner' suddenly and unfortunately drifting across his memory.

"Ha... so that's it?" Ranma asked. "Not even bondage... you 'controlled' your other halves by wilfully cutting them out and discarding them. That's... really kind of disgusting. Because you're indoctrinated to hate them, you threw away the power that could have been yours?"

_"Magic."_ the Other calmly pointed out, cutting off the rant Ranma had building in a flash of rage.

"..... Hmph. You don't know what you're talking about, girly. They were trying to _eat_ us, case you didn't realize." Shinji snapped angrily.

"And did you try to find any alternative solution? Everything has to eat." Ranma countered practically. "If there's only one thing they can possibly reach to make any attempt to eat, then that's what they will try to eat. It's simple logic. And you're upset about it? That's like... a guard starving his prisoner, and every day conspicuously slathering themselves with barbecue sauce where they could be seen. Exactly what did you expect to happen?"

Shinji frowned, and then his eyes slowly widened.

"You can't be serious!" He barked. "You're a... and you've been letting it out!?"

"Heh... my motto is 'Victory through Compromise'." Ranma said, leering at the chalk-white vaizard. "Compromising the enemy... or making compromises with allies. Same difference. Yeah... my pale reflection and I... like yin and yang, two halves of the same whole. It's not fair, to keep your twin sister locked up all the time, is it?"

"It's an evil monster!" Shinji argued frantically.

".... 'Evil'?" Ranma mused. "That's a pretty nebulous concept. And after a few days, I'll admit, she started getting pretty snappy and irritable."

Ranma paused and grinned in a way that wasn't so much smiling as it was baring of teeth.

"Of course... then we tracked down an idiot Hollow, and with a full belly, she was much more pleasant company. Much the same could be said about me."

"You... that...!"

"What's wrong?" Ranma asked. "Do we offend you? Is our mere existence such a chore to bear, now that you understand a little about us? Or... have seeds of doubt taken root in your mind, so that you've begun to wonder if maybe, we haven't figured out the right of it after all?"

"I really don't get what's going on here." Ichigo admitted, having become lost somewhere over the course of the conversation.

"Don't worry about it. Shinji and I are having an important conversation, but it seems like words aren't going to be quite enough." Ranma shrugged and casually drew her zanpakuto. "So now... now we'll demonstrate why we are superior. Why only a fool would kill half of themselves. We'll not interfere with you if you decide to follow in the footsteps of fools, Ichigo... but watch carefully. Think long and hard, before deciding."

"Die!" Shinji snarled as he hurled himself into battle.

x

Omake Scene 2, It's Ace Attorney Time:

"Ranma Saotome?"

She looked up to the suited man, who was extending an official looking envelope for her to take.

"You have been served. Good day, madame."

x

Omake Scene 3, Eh? :

Ranma opened the door and paused. There, in the middle of the room, Eva was sitting in her chair, one leg crossed over the other. This wasn't particularly unusual.

What was, was that Negi was kneeling in front of her, holding the foot and leaning forward, tongue partially extended. Both had stopped and looked up when she started to enter, in differing degrees of awkwardness or humiliation.

".... Okay, you know what? I'm going to be back in an hour. You go ahead and do what you want, but I don't even _want_ to know."

x

Omake Scene 4, Training Time:

"You know, sensei... I'm kind of offended. You look for a martial arts tutor, and you don't even think of asking me?"

"W-well..." Negi stammered. "It's, it's not that I meant to offend... it's just, you know... I have nightmares about you. And a really angry Eva-chan, sometimes, but mainly you. So it's not that I didn't think of asking you... it's that I did, and I very nearly soiled myself from the imagery."

"Yeah, yeah, okay, fair enough. We start right now."

"But-!"

"_We start right now._" Ranma growled dangerously, and Negi sighed in reluctant acceptance of his fate.

"Now, I very much approve of your seeking to learn the martial arts. You see, the tougher you are, the harder you are to defeat. So, when I do get around to killing you, I'll be able to pull out _all_ the stops, and your absolutely wrecked and tormented body will be able to take a _lot_ of punishment before you finally kick the bucket."

"Suddenly... I'm very much reconsidering my choice of magical battle style." Negi mumbled grimly.

"So! We'll start you off nice and slow. This is a little training excersize pops used to put me through every so often. It's called... well, I forget the offical name. Unofficially, it's called 'Don't Die'. The object of the training is not to die, and you know you've succeeded because, quite simply, you aren't dead at the end of it. It ends when I say so."

"Great. That's just... just great."

"Alright, we start now. Defend yourself!"

x

As per norm, I might integrate any, all, or none of these into the primary storyline. Personally, I'm leaning towards the Ace Attorney one... which is probably why it has the least actual level of detail, I guess. Put Ranma in a position she can't exactly just butcher her way out of, if things go south. Also, I just played a couple of those games, so yeah.


End file.
